;ADGER~STATE 


^M—  tn 


STORIES 


THE    BADGER    STATE 


BY 


REUBEN    GOLD   THWAITES 


NEW   YORK  •=•  CINCINNATI  •:•  CHICAGO 
AMERICAN   BOOK   COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1900,  BY 
REUBEN  GOLD  THWAITES. 


STO.    BADGER   STA. 
W.     P.     I 


PREFACE 

THE  student  of  nature  lives  in  a  broader  and  more 
interesting  world  than  does  he  who  has  not  learned  the 
story  of  the  birds,  the  streams,  the  fields,  the  woods,  and 
the  hedgerows.  So,  too,  the  student  of  local  history 
finds  his  present  interest  in  town,  village,  city,  or  State, 
growing  with  his  knowledge  of  its  past. 

In  recognition  of  this  fact,  these  true  stories,  selected 
from  Wisconsin's  history,  have  been  written  as  a  means 
to  the  cultivation  of  civic  patriotism  among  the  youth 
of  our  commonwealth.  It  is  not  the  purpose  of  the 
book  to  present  a  continuous  account  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  State ;  for  this,  the  author  begs  to  refer  to 
his  larger  work,  "  The  Story  of  Wisconsin "  (in  the 
Story  of  the  States  Series).  Rather  is  it  desired  to 
give  selections  from  the  interesting  and  often  stirring 
incidents  with  which  our  history  is  so  richly  stored,  in 
the  hope  that  the  reader  may  acquire  a  taste  for  delving 
more  deeply  into  the  annals  of  the  Badger  State. 

Wisconsin  had  belonged,  in  turn,  to  Spain,  France, 
and  England,  before  she  became  a  portion  of  the  United 
States.  Her  recorded  history  begins  far  back  in  the 
time  of  French  ownership,  in  1634.  The  century  and 
a  third  of  the  French  regime  was  a  picturesque  period, 
3 


upon  which  the  memory  delights  to  dwell;  with  its 
many  phases,  several  of  the  following  chapters  are  con- 
cerned. The  English  regime  was  brief,  but  not  without 
interest.  In  the  long  stretch  of  years  which  followed, 
before  Wisconsin  became  an  American  State,  many  in- 
cidents happened  which  possess  for  us  the  flavor  of 
romance.  The  formative  period  between  1848  and  1861 
was  replete  with  striking  events.  In  the  War  of  Seces- 
sion, Wisconsin  took  a  gallant  and  notable  part.  Since 
that  great  struggle,  the  State  has  made  giant  strides  in 
industry,  commerce,  education,  and  culture;  but  the 
present  epoch  of  growth  has  not  thus  far  yielded  much 
material  for  picturesque  treatment,  perhaps  because  we 
are  still  too  near  to  the  events  to  see  them  in  proper 
perspective.  An  attempt  has  been  made  to  present 
chapters  representative  of  all  these  periods,  but  natu- 
rally the  earlier  times  have  seemed  best  adapted  to  the 
purpose  in  hand. 

R.  G.  T. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The  Mound  Builders 7 

Life  and  Manners  of  the  Indians     ......       14 

The  Discovery  of  Wisconsin  .......       24 

Radisson  and  Groseilliers         .......       33 

The  Story  of  Joliet  and  Marquette 42 

The  Jesuit  Missionaries  .         .         .         .         .         .         .  51 

Some  Notable  Visitors  to  Early  Wisconsin      ....       59 

A  Quarter  of  a  Century  of  Warfare         .....       70 

The  Commerce  of  the  Forest .         .        .;'--.        .        .         .       81 

In  the  Old  French  Days 87 

The  Coming  of  the  English    .......       92 

Wisconsin  in  the  Revolutionary  War       .....       97 

The  Rule  of  Judge  Re"aume     .         .         .         .        .        .         .105 

The  British  capture  Prairie  du  Chien no 

The  Story  of  the  Wisconsin  Lead  Mines         .         .         .         -117 
The  Winnebago  War      .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .125 

The  Black  Hawk  War .134 

The  .Story  of  Chequamegon  Bay     .  .         .         .         .     146 

Wisconsin  Territory  formed    .         .         .         .         .         .  155 

Wisconsin  becomes  a  State 159 

The  Boundaries  of  Wisconsin 162 

Life  in  Pioneer  Days        .         .         .  •  .         .         .     171 

5 


The  Development  of  Roads    ...... 

PAGE 
.         177 

The  Phalanx  at  Ceresco  ....... 

•         183 

A  Mormon  King     ........ 

.         190 

The  Wisconsin  Bourbon          

.         I96 

Slave  Catching  in  Wisconsin  ...... 

.       2O2 

The  Story  of  a  Famous  Chief          ..... 

.       209 

A  Fight  for  the  Governorship          ..... 

.     216 

Our  Foreign-born  Citizens       ...... 

.       222 

Swept  by  Fire         

.       230 

Badgers  in  War  Time     

•       236 

INDEX    , 

.      247 

STORIES   OF   THE  BADGER  STATE 


THE   MOUND    BUILDERS 

IN  the  basin  of  the  Mississippi,  particularly  in  that 
portion  lying  east  of  the  great  river,  there  are  nu- 
merous mounds  which  were  reared  by  human  beings, 
apparently  in  very  early  times,  before  American  his- 
tory begins.  They  are  found  most  frequently  upon  the 
banks  of  lakes  and  rivers,  and  often  upon  the  summits 
of  high  bluffs  overlooking  the  country.  No  attempt 
has  ever  been  made  to  count  them,  for  they  could  be 
numbered  by  tens  of  thousands ;  in  the  small  county 
of  Trempealeau,  Wisconsin,  for  instance,  over  two 
thousand  have  been  found  by  surveyors.  Most  of  the 
mounds  have  been  worn  down,  by  hundreds  of  years  of 
exposure  to  rain  and  frost,  till  they  are  but  two  or 
three  feet  in  height;  a  few,  however,  still  retain  so 
majestic  an  altitude  as  eighty  or  more  feet.  The  coni- 
cal mounds  are  called  by  ethnologists  tmnuli.  Other 
earthworks  are  long  lines,  or  squares,  or  circles,  and 
are  probably  fortifications ;  some  of  the  best  examples 
of  these  are  still  to  be  traced  at  Aztalan,  Wisconsin. 
In  many  places,  especially  in  Ohio  and  Wisconsin, 
they  have  been  so  shaped  as  to  resemble  buffaloes, 
7 


8 

serpents,  lizards,  squirrels,  or  birds ;  and  some  appar- 
ently were  designed  to  represent  clubs,  bows,  or  spears 
—  all  these  peculiarly  shaped  mounds  being  styled 
effigies. 

The  mounds  attracted  the  attention  of  some  of  the 
earliest  white  travelers  in  the  Mississippi  basin,  and 
much  was  written  about  them  in  books  published  in 
Europe  over  a  hundred  years  ago.  Books  are  still 
being  written  about  the  mounds,  but  most  of  them  are 
based  on  old  and  worn-out  theories  ;  those  published 
by  the  Ethnological  Bureau,  at  Washington,  are  the 
latest  and  best.  Many  thousands  of  these  earthworks 
have  been  opened,  some  by  scientists,  many  more  by 
curiosity  seekers,  and  their  contents  have,  for  the  most 
part,  found  their  way  into  public  museums.  Many  of 
the  mounds  have  been  measured  with  great  accuracy, 
and  pictures  and  descriptions  of  them  are  common. 

Until  a  few  years  ago,  the  opinion  was  quite  gen- 
eral, even  among  historians  and  ethnologists,  that  the 
mounds  were  built  by  a  race  of  people  who  lived  in 
the  Mississippi  basin  before  the  coming  of  the  Indians, 
and  that  the  mound  builders  were  far  superior  to  the 
Indians  in  civilization.  Many  thought  that  this  prehis- 
toric race  had  been  driven  southward  by  the  Indians, 
and  that  the  Aztecs  whom  the  Spaniards  found  in  Mex- 
ico and  Central  America  four  hundred  years  ago  were 
its  descendants.  We  have  in  Wisconsin  a  reminder  of 
the  Aztec  theory,  in  the  name  Aztalan,  early  applied 
to  a  notable  group  of  earthworks  in  Jefferson  county. 

There  were  many  reasons  why,  in  an  earlier  and 
more  imperfect  stage  of  our  knowledge  concerning 


Indians,  this  theory  seemed  plausible.  It  was  argued 
that  to  build  all  these  mounds  required  a  vast  deal  of 
steady  labor,  which  could  have  been  performed  only  by 
a  dense  population,  working  under  some  strong  central 
authority,  perhaps  in  a  condition  of  slavery ;  that  these 
people  must  have  long  resided  in  the  same  spot ;  and 
must  have  been  supported  by  regular  crops  of  grain, 
vegetables,  and  fruit.  It  was  shown  that  Indians,  as 
we  found  them,  lived  in  small  bands,  and  did  not  abide 
long  in  one  place ;  that  theif  system  of  government  was 
a  loose  democracy ;  that  they  were  disinclined  to  per- 
sistent labor,  and  that  they  were  hunters,  not  farmers. 
Further,  it  was  contended  that  the  mounds  indicated  a 
religious  belief  on  the  part  of  their  builders,  which  was 
not  the  religion  of  the  red  men.  The  result  of  these 
arguments,  to  which  was  added  a  good  deal  of  romantic 
fancy,  was  to  rear  in  the  public  mind  a  highly  colored 
conception  of  a  mythical  race  of  Mound  Builders,  rival- 
ing in  civilization  the  ancient  Egyptians. 

But  we  are  living  in  an  age  of  scientific  investigation ; 
scientific  methods  are  being  applied  to  every  branch  of 
study ;  history  has  had  to  be  rewritten  for  us  in  the 
new  light  which  is  being  thrown  upon  the  path  of 
human  development.  This  is  not  the  place  to  set  forth 
in  detail  the  steps  by  which  knowledge  has  been  slowly 
but  surely  reached,  regarding  the  history  of  the  once 
mysterious  mounds.  The  work  of  research  is  not  yet 
ended,  for  the  study  of  ethnology  is  only  in  its  infancy ; 
nevertheless,  it  is  now  well  established  that  the  Indians 
built  the  mounds,  and  we  may  feel  reasonably  certain 
for  what  purpose  they  used  them, 


10 

Indian  population  was  never  dense  in  North  Amer- 
ica. The  best  judges  now  agree  that  the  entire  native 
population  consisted  of  not  over  two  hundred  thousand 
at  the  time  when  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  came  to  Plym- 
outh. Of  these,  Wisconsin  probably  had  but  nine 
thousand,  which,  curiously  enough,  is  about  its  present 
Indian  population.  But,  before  the  first  whites  came, 
many  of  the  American  tribes  were  not  such  roamers 
as  they  afterward  became  ;  they  were  inclined  to  gather 
into  villages,  and  to  raise  large  crops  of  Indian  corn, 
melons,  and  pumpkins,  the  surplus  of  which  they  dried 
and  stored  for  winter.  We  shall  read,  in  another  chap- 
ter, how  the  white  fur  trader  came  to  induce  the  Indian 
agriculturist  to  turn  hunter,  and  thereby  to  become  the 
wandering  savage  whom  we  know  to-day.  Concern- 
ing the  argument  that  the  modern  Indian  is  too  lazy 
to  build  mounds,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  he  was, 
when  a  planter,  of  necessity  a  better  worker  than  when 
he  had  become  a  hunter;  also,  that  many  of  the  state- 
ments we  read  about  Indian  laziness  are  the  result  of 
popular  misunderstanding  of  the  state  of  Indian  soci- 
ety. It  is  now  well  known  that  the  Indian  was  quite 
capable  of  building  excellent  fortifications;  that  the 
most  complicated  forms  of  mounds  were  not  beyond 
his  capacity ;  and  that,  in  general,  he  was  in  a  more 
advanced  stage  of  mental  development  than  was  gen- 
erally believed  by  old  writers.  Modern  experiments, 
also,  prove  that  the  actual  work  of  building  a  mound, 
with  the  aid  of  baskets  to  carry  the  earth,  which  was 
the  method  that  they  are  known  to  have  employed, 
was  not  so  great  as  has  been  supposed. 


It  has  been  recently  discovered,  from  documents  of 
that  period,  that  certain  Indians  were  actually  building 
mounds  in  our  southern  States  as  late  as  the  Revolu- 
tionary War.  In  the  north,  the  practice  of  mound 

building  had  gone  or 

was     going     out     of 
fashion  about  a  hun- 
dred  and   twenty-five 
years  before,  that  is, 
in     the     days     when 
the  French  first  came 
to  Wisconsin.      It  is 
thought    that     some 
of     our      Wisconsin 
mounds    may  be    a 
thousand  years  old ; 
while    others    are 
certainly  not  much 
over  two  hundred 
years    of    age,    for 
skeletons   have   been 
found    in  some  of    them  -:. 

wearing  silver  ornaments  which 
were    made    in    Paris,    and    which 
bear  dates  as  late  as  1680. 

It  is  easy  to  imagine  the  uses  to  which  the  Wisconsin 
mounds  were  put  by  their  Indian  builders.  We  can  the 
more  readily  reason  this  out,  because  we  know,  from 
books  of  travel  published  at  the  time,  just  what  use 
the  southern  Indians  were  making  of  their  mounds,  in 
the  period  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  The  small  tumuli 


12 

were  for  the  most  part  burial  places  for  men  of  impor- 
tance, and  were  merely  heaps  of  earth  piled  above  the 
corpse,  which  was  generally  placed  in  a  sitting  posture ; 
he  was  surrounded  with  earthen  pots  containing  food, 
which  was  to  last  him  until  his  arrival  at  the  happy  hunt- 
ing ground,  and  with  weapons  of  stone  and  copper,  to 
enable  him  there  to  kill  game  or  defend  himself  against 
his  enemies.  The  larger  tumuli  were,  no  doubt,  the 
commanding  sites  of  council  houses  or  of  the  huts  of 
chiefs.  Each  Indian  belonged,  through  his  relation- 
ship with  his  mother's  people,  to  some  clan ;  and  each 
clan  had  its  symbol  or  totem,  such  as  the  Bear,  the 
Turtle,  the  Buffalo,  etc.  The  Indians  claimed  that 
the  clan  had  descended  from  some  giant  animal  whose 
figure,  or  effigy,  was  thus  honored.  Many  white  people 
place  their  family  symbol,  or  crest,  or  coat  of  arms  on 
their  letter  paper,  or  on  the  panels  of  their  carriage 
doors,  or  upon  their  silverware ;  so  Indians  are  fond 
of  displaying  their  respective  totems  on  their  utensils, 
weapons,  canoes,  or  wigwams.  In  the  mound  building 
days,  they  reared  totems  of  earth,  and  probably  dwelt 
on  top  of  them.  As  in  each  village  there  were  sev- 
eral clans,  so  there  were  numerous  earth  totems,  many 
of  them  of  great  size.  This,  no  doubt,  is  the  origin 
of  the  so-called  effigies.  Add  to  these  the  mystic  cir- 
cles of  the  medicine  men,  the  fantastic  serpents,  and 
the  fortifications  necessary  to  defend  the  village  from 
the  approach  of  an  enemy  up  some  sloping  bank  or 
sharp-sided  ravine,  and  you  have  the  story  of  the 
mounds.  An  Indian  village  in  those  old  mound  build- 
ing days  must  have  presented  a  picturesque  appearance. 


13 

Just  why  the  Indians  stopped  building  mounds  is 
not  settled ;  but  it  is  noticeable  that  they  were  being 
built  in  various  parts  of  the  country  about  up  to  the  time 
of  the  white  man's  entry.  It  may  be  that  the  coming 
of  the  stranger,  with  his  different  manners,  hastened 
the  decay  of  the  custom  ;  or  perhaps  it  had  practically 
ceased  about  that  time,  as  many  another  wave  of  cus- 
tom has  swept  over  primitive  peoples  and  left  only 
traces  behind. 

The  mounds,  with  which  the  forefathers  of  our 
Indians  dotted  our  land,  remain  to  us  as  curious  and 
instructive  monuments  of  savage  life  in  prehistoric 
times.  No  castles  or  grand  cathedrals  have  come  down 
to  us,  in  America,  to  illustrate  the  story  of  the  early 
ages  of  our  own  race  ;  but  we  have  in  the  mounds 
mute,  impressive  relics  of  a  still  earlier  life  upon  this 
soil,  by  our  primitive  predecessors.  It  should  be  con- 
sidered our  duty,  as  well  as  our  pleasure,  to  preserve 
them  intact  for  the  enlightenment  of  coming  generations 
of  our  people. 


LIFE   AND    MANNERS   OF   THE   INDIANS 

AT  the  time  when  white  men  first  came  to  Wisconsin, 
there  were  found  here  several  widely  differing 
tribes  of  Indians,  and  these  were  often  at  war  with  one 
another.  The  Winnebagoes,  an  offshoot  of  the  Sioux, 
occupied  the  valleys  of  the  Wisconsin  and  the  Fox,  and 
the  shores  of  Green  Bay  as  far  down  as  Sturgeon  Bay. 
If  the  theory  of  the  ethnologists  be  correct,  that  most  of 
the  Wisconsin  mounds  were  built  by  the  Winnebagoes, 
then  at  times  they  must  have  dwelt  in  nearly  every  cor- 
ner of  the  State.  This  is  not  unlikely,  for  the  centers 
of  Indian  population  were  continually  shifting,  the  red 
men  being  driven  hither  and  thither  by  encroachments 
of  enemies,  religious  fancies,  or  the  never-ending  search 
for  food.  We  know  only  that  when  the  whites  found 
them,  they  were  holding  these  two  valleys,  between  Green 
Bay  and  Prairie  du  Chien.  A  broad-faced  people,  with 
flat  noses,  they  were  in  personal  appearance,  habits, 
and  morals  the  least  attractive  of  all  our  tribes.  Their 
cousins,  the  wild  and  dashing  Sioux,  were  still  using 
northwest  Wisconsin  as  a  hunting  ground,  and  had 
permanent  villages  in  Minnesota,  and  elsewhere  to  the 
west  of  the  Mississippi  River.  The  Chippewas  (or 
Ojibways,  as  the  name  was  originally  spelled),  the  best 
14 


15 

of  our  Wisconsin  aborigines,  were  scattered  through 
the  northern  part  of  the  State,  as  far  south  as  the  Black 
River,  and  perhaps  as  far  eastward  as  the  Wolf.  East 
of  them  were  the  Menominees  (Wild  Rice  Eaters),  a 
comparatively  gentle  folk,  who  gathered  great  stores  of 
grain  from  the  broad  fields  of  wild  rice  which  flourishes 
in  the  bayous  and  marshy  river  bottoms  of  northeast 
Wisconsin.  The  Pottawattomies,  with  feminine  cast  of 
countenance,  occupied  the  islands  at  the  mouth  of  Green 
Bay,  and  the  west  shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  down  into 
Illinois.  The  united  Sacs  (or  Saukies)  and  Foxes 
(Outagamies)  were  also  prominent  tribes.  When  first 
seen  by  whites,  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  were  weak  in  num- 
bers, but,  being  a  bold  and  warlike  people,  they  soon 
grew  to  importance,  and  crowded  the  Winnebagoes  out 
of  the  Fox  valley  and,  later,  out  of  much  of  the  Wis- 
consin valley,  becoming  in  their  pride  and  strength 
bitter  enemies  of  the  French. 

Scattered  elsewhere  through  the  State  were  some 
smaller  tribes :  the  Mascoutins  (Fire  Nation),  chiefly  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  present  city  of  Berlin  ;  the 
short-limbed  Kickapoos,  in  the  Kickapoo  valley ;  and, 
at  various  periods,  bands  of  Hurons,  Illinois,  Miamis, 
and  Ottawas,  none  of  whom  ever  played  a  large  part 
here.  The  Stockbridges,  Oneidas,  Brothertowns,  and 
Munsees,  now  numerous  in  northeast  Wisconsin,  are 
remnatits  of  New  York  and  Massachusetts  tribes  who 
were  removed  hither  by  the  general  government  in 
1822  and  later. 

No  two  tribes  spoke  the  same  language.  In  Wiscon- 
sin, the  Indians  were  divided  by  language  into  two 


i6 


great  families,  the  Algonkin  and  the  Dakotan.  The 
Sioux  and  the  Winnebagoes  belonged,  by  their  similar 
speech,  to  the  Dakotan  family,  just  as  the  English  and 
the  Germans  belong  to  the  great  Teutonic  family.  All 
the  others  were  of  the  Algonkin  group,  just  as  the 
French,  the  Spanish,  and  the  Italians  belong  to  what  is 
called  the  Latin  family,  and  speak  languages  which 
have  the  same  origin.  The  Indian  history 
of  Wisconsin  is  the  more  interesting,  be- 
cause here  these  two  great  families 
or  groups  met,  clashed,  and  inter- 

-|/-^  mingled.     Despite    the  diversity  of 

^jflijfe  tongues,  they  were,  with  certain  va- 

riations, much  the  same  sort 
of  people  ;   and  for  our  pres- 
ent purpose,  the  description 
of   one  tribe  will  serve  for 
the  description  of  all. 
In    size,     Indians     resemble 
Europeans ;    some    are    shorter 
than    the    average    white    man, 
some  taller  ;  the  Kickapoos  were 
among  the  short  men.       Indians 
have  black  eyes  and  coarse,  black 
hair.      Most   of    them    wear   no 
beard,  but  as  the  hairs  appear, 
pluck  them  out  with  tweezers  of 
wood   or  clam   shell.     They   have  thin   lips,   high 
cheek  bones,   broad   faces,   and   prominent   noses;    the 
Winnebago's  nose  is  large,  but  much  flattened. 

In  primitive  times,  the  summer  dress  of  the  men  was 


17 

generally  a  short  apron  made  of  the  well-tanned  skin  of 
a  wild  animal,  the  women  being  clothed  in  skins  from 
neck  to  knees ;  in  winter,  both  sexes  wrapped  them- 
selves in  large  fur  robes.  In  some  parts  of  North 
America,  especially  in  the  south,  where  the  Indians 
were  more  highly  developed  than  those  in  the  north, 
they  wove  rude  cloths  of  thread  spun  from  buffalo  hair, 
or  of  sinews  of  animals  killed  in  the  chase.  It  is  not 
supposed  that  there  was  much  of  this  cloth  made  in 
Wisconsin.  What  specimens  have  been  discovered  in 
our  mounds,  no  doubt  were  obtained  from  the  native 
peddlers,  who  wandered  far  and  wide  carrying  the 
peculiar  products  of  several  tribes,  and  exchanging 
them  for  other  goods,  or  for  wampum,  the  universal 
currency  of  the  forest.  Moccasins  of  deerskin  were  in 
general  use  ;  also  leggins,  with  the  fur  turned  inward 
or  outward  according  to  the  weather.  Much  of  their 
clothing  was  stained  red  or  black  or  yellow  ;  some  was 
painted  in  stripes  or  lace  work,  and  some  was  decorated 
with  pictures  of  birds  and  beasts,  or  with  scenes  which 
they  wished  to  commemorate.  One  old  writer  quaintly 
speaks  of  "a  great  skinne  painted  and  drawen  and 
pourtrayed  that  nothing  lacked  but  life."  Their  dress 
was  also  ornamented  by  beads  and  porcupine  quills; 
in  the  fringed  borders  of  their  leggins  and  robes  were 
often  fastened  deer's  hoofs,  the  spurs  of  wild  turkeys, 
or  the"  claws  of  bears  or  eagles,  which  rattled  as  their 
wearers  walked  along.  Around  their  necks  were  strings 
of  beads,  and  their  ears  and  noses  were  pierced  for 
the  hanging  of  various  other  ornaments.  In  their  hair, 
the  -men  tied  eagle  feathers,  one  for  each  scalp  taken. 

STO.   OF   BADGER   STA.  —  2 


i8 

The  "war  bonnet,"  worn  by  the  leading  warriors, 
was  a  headdress  of  skins  and  feathers,  which 
trailed  down  ^  the  back  and  often  to  the 
and  was  highly  picturesque. 
Add  to  this,  the  general  habit  of 
tattooing,  or,  on  ceremonial  occa- 
sions, of  fantastically,  often  hideously, 
painting  the  face  and  neck  and  breast 
in  blue,  black,  and  red,  and  one  can 
well  imagine  that  an  Indian  village,  on 
a  fete  day,  or  at  other  times  of  popular 
excitement,  presented  a  striking  scene. 
Each  tribe  could  be  readily  distin- 
guished from  others,  by  the  shape  and  material  of  its 
wigwams  or  huts.  The  Chippewas,  for  instance,  lived 
in  hemispherical  huts,  covered  with  great  sheets  of 
birch-bark ;  the  Winnebago  hut  was  more  of  the  shape 
of  a  sugar  loaf,  and  was  covered  with  mats  of  woven 
rushes;  the  Sioux  dwelt  in  cone-shaped  huts  (tepees}, 
covered  with  skins,  the  poles  sticking  out  at  the  top. 
These  huts  were  foully  kept,  and  all  manner  of  camp 
diseases  prevailed ;  pulmonary  complaints  and  rheuma- 
tism were  particularly  frequent,  and  both  men  and 
women  looked  old  and  haggard  before  they  reached 
middle  age. 

In  the  old  mound  building  days,  the  huts  of  the  village 
leaders  or  chiefs  were  no  doubt  built  upon  the  tops  of 
the  mounds,  while  the  common  people  lived  on  the 
lower  level.  On  top  of  a  very  large,  conspicuous  mound 
was  the  council  house,  where  important  events  were 
discussed  and  action  taken.  Every  warrior,  that  is, 


19 

every  man  who  had  taken  the  scalp  of  an  enemy,  was 
permitted  to  be  heard  around  the  council  fire;  but  the 
talking  was  for  the  most  part  done  by  the  privileged 
class  of  headmen,  old  men,  wise  men,  and  orators. 

The  political  organization  of  the  Indians  was  weak. 
The  villages  were  little  democracies,  where  one  warrior 
considered  himself  as  good  as  another,  except  for  the 
respect  naturally  due  to  the  chiefs  or  headmen  of  the 
several  clans,  or  to  those  who  had  the  reputation  of 
being  wise  and  able.  The  sachem,  or  peace-chief,  whose 
office  was  hereditary  through  connection  with  his  moth- 
er's family,  had  but  slight  authority  unless  his  natural 
gifts  commanded  respect. 

When  war  broke  out,  the  fighting  men  ranged  them- 
selves as  volunteers  under  some  popular  leader,  per- 
haps a  regular  chief,  or  perhaps  only  a  common  warrior. 
When  the  village  council  decided  to  do  something,  any 
man  might,  if  he  wished,  refuse  to  obey.  It 
was  seldom  that  an  entire  tribe,  consisting  of 
several  villages,  united  in  an  important  under- 
taking; still  more  unusual  was  it,  for  several 
tribes  to  unite.  This  was,  of  course,  a  weak 
organization,  such  as  a  pure  democracy  is  sure 
to  be.  The  Indian  lacked  self-control  and 
steadfastness  of  purpose,  and  the  tribes  and 
villages  were  jealous  of  one  another ;  so  they 
yielded  before  the  whites,  who  better  under- 
stood the  value  of  union  in  the  face  of  a  com- 
mon foe.  The  formidable  conspiracies  of  King 
Philip,  Pontiac,  and  some  others  were  the 
work  of  Indians  of  quite  unusual  ability  in  "3F 


20 

the  art  of  organization ;  but  the  leaders  could  find  few 
others  equal  to  their  skill,  and  the  uprisings  were  short- 
lived. 

The  Indian's  strength  as  a  fighter  lay  in  his  capacity 
for  stratagem,  in  his  ability  to  thread  the  tangled  forest 
as  silently  and  easily  as  the  plain,  and  in  his  habit  of 
making  rapid,  unexpected  sallies  for  robbery  and  mur- 
der, and  then  gliding  back  into  the  dark  and  almost 
impenetrable  forest.  He  soon  tired  of  long  military 
operations,  and,  when  hard  pressed,  was  apt  to  yield  to 
the  white  men  who  were  often  inferior  in  numbers,  but 
who  soon  learned  to  adopt  the  aborigine's  skulking 
method  of  warfare. 

Lord  of  his  own  wigwam,  and  tyrannical  over  his 
squaws,  the  Indian  was  kind  and  hospitable  to  unsus- 
pected strangers,  yet  merciless  to  a  captive.  Neverthe- 
less, prisoners  were  often  snatched  from  the  stake,  or 
the  hands  of  a  cruel  captor,  to  be  adopted  into  the  family 
of  the  rescuer,  taking  the  place  of  some  one  killed  by 
the  enemy.  The  red  man  was  improvident,  given  to 
gambling,  and,  despite  the  popular  notion,  was  a  jolly, 
easy-going  sort  of  fellow  around  his  own  fire ;  but  in 
council,  and  when  among  strangers,  he  was  dignified 
and  reserved,  too  proud  to  exhibit  curiosity  or  emotion. 
He  indulged  in  a  style  of  oratory  which  abounded  in 
metaphors  drawn  from  his  observations  of  nature.  He 
was  superstitious,  peopling  the  elements  with  good  and 
bad  spirits ;  and  was  much  influenced  by  the  medicine 
men,  who  were  half  physicians  and  half  priests,  and 
who  commanded  long  fastings,  penances,  and  sacrifices, 
with  curious  dances,  and  various  forms  of  necromancy. 


21 

The  Indian  made  tools  and  implements  which  were 
well  adapted  to  his  purpose ;  the  boats  which  he  fash- 
ioned of  skins,  of  birch-bark,  or  of  hollowed  trunks  of 
trees  have  not  been  surpassed.  He  was  remarkably 
quick  in  learning  the  use  of  firearms,  and  soon  equaled 
the  best  white  hunters  as  a  marksman.  A  rude  sense 
of  honor  was  developed  within  him ;  he  had  a  nice  per- 
ception of  what  was  proper  to  do ;  he  knew  how  to 
bend  his  own  will  to  the  force  of  custom,  thus  he  over- 
came to  some  extent  the  natural  evils  of  democracy. 
He  understood  the  arts  of  politeness  when  he  chose 
to  practice  them.  He  could  plan  admirably,  and  often 
displayed  much  skill  in  strategy ;  his  reasoning  was 
good.  He  knew  the  value  of  form  and  color,  as  we 
can  see  in  his  rock-carvings,  in  his  rude  paintings,  in 
the  decorations  on  his  leather,  and  in  his  often  grace- 
ful body-markings.  In  short,  he  was  less  of  a  savage 
than  we  are  in  the  habit  of  thinking  him ;  he  was 
barbarous  from  choice,  because  he  had  a  wild,  un- 
trammeled  nature  and  saw  little  in  civilized  ideas  to 
attract  him.  This  is  why,  with  his  polite  manner,  he 
always  seemed  to  be  yielding  to  missionary  efforts, 
yet  perhaps  never  became  thoroughly  converted  to 
Christianity. 

When  first  discovered  by  white  men,  Wisconsin  In- 
dians were  using  rude  pottery  of  their  own  make.  Their 
arrowheads  and  spearheads,,  axes,  knives,  and  other 
tools  and  weapons  were  of  copper  obtained  from 
Lake  Superior  mines,  or  of  stone  suitable  for  the 
purpose.  They  smoked  tobacco  in  pipes  wrought  in 
curious  shapes  from  a  soft  kind  of  stone  found  in 


22 


Minnesota,  and  ornaments  and  charms  were  also  fre- 
quently made  from  this  so-called  "  pipestone."  Game 
they  killed  with  arrows  or  sling-shots,  and  in  war 
used  these,  as  well  as  stone  spears  and  hatchets  and 
stone-weighted  clubs.  The  bulk 
of  their  food  they  obtained  by 
hunting,  fishing,  and  cultivating 
the  soil,  although  at  times  they 
were  forced  to  resort  to  the  usu- 
ally plentiful  supply  of  fruits, 
nuts,  and  edible  roots.  Indian 
corn  was  the  principal  crop. 
Beans  were  sown  in  the  same 
hills,  while  sometimes  between 
the  rows  were  planted  several 
varieties  of  pumpkins,  water-melons,  and  sunflowers. 
Tobacco  and  sweet  potatoes  were  grown  by  some  tribes, 
but  not  in  Wisconsin.  In  our  State,  wild  rice  (or  oats) 
furnished  a  good  substitute  for  corn,  and  was  similarly 
cooked. 

The  whites  wrought  a  serious  change  in  the  life  and 
manners  of  the  Indians.  They  introduced  firearms 
among  the  savages,  and  induced  them  to  become  hunt- 
ers, and  to  wander  far  and  wide  for  fur  bearing  animals, 
the  pelts  of  which  were  exchanged  for  European  cloths, 
glass  beads,  iron  kettles,  hatchets,  spears,  and  guns  and 
powder.  Thus  the  Indian. soon  lost  the  old  arts  of  mak- 
ing their  own  clothing  from  skins,  kettles  from  clay, 
weapons  from  stone  and  copper,  and  wampum  (beads 
used  both  for  ornament  and  money)  from  clam  shells. 
It  did  not  take  them  long  to  discover  that  their  labor 


23 

was  more  productive  when  they  hunted,  and  purchased 
what  they  wanted  from  the  white  traders,  than  when 
they  made  their  own  rude  implements  and  utensils  and 
raised  crops.  But  the  result  was  bad,  for  thereby  they 
ceased  to  be  self-sustaining ;  their  very  existence  became 
dependent  on  the  fur  traders,  who  introduced  among 
them  many  vices,  not  least  of  which  was  a  love  for  the 
intoxicating  liquors  in  which  the  traders  dealt. 

The  Indian,  at  best,  was  never  a  lovable  creature. 
He  was  dirty,  improvident,  brutal ;  he  was,  as  compared 
with  a  European,  mentally  and  morally  but  an  unde- 
veloped man.  He  is  to-day,  as  we  find  him  upon  the 
reservations,  pretty  much  the  same  as  when  found  by 
the  French  over  two  and  a  half  centuries  ago,  except 
that  to  his  original  vices  he  has  added  some  of  the 
worst  vices  of  the  white  man.  The  story  of  the  Indian 
is  practically  the  story  of  the  fur  trade,  and  that  is 
the  story  of  Wisconsin  before  it  became  a  Territory. 


THE    DISCOVERY   OF   WISCONSIN 

IN  the  year  1608,  the  daring  French  explorer,  Samuel 
de  Champlain,   founded  a  settlement  on  the   steep 
cliff  of  Quebec,  and  thus  laid  the  foundations  for  the 
great  colony  of  New  France.     This  colony,  in  the  course 
of  a  century  and  a  half,  grew  to  em- 
brace all  of  what  we  now  call  Canada 
and  the  entire  basin  of  the  Mississippi 
River. 

New  France  grew  slowly.  This  was 
largely  owing  to  the  opposition  of  the 
fierce  Iroquois  Indians  of  New  York, 
whom  Champlain  had  greatly  angered. 
Another  reason  was  the  changing  moods 
of  the  Algonkin  Indians  of  Canada  and 
the  Middle  West;  and  still  another,  the  enormous  diffi- 
culties of  travel  through  the  vast  forests  and  along 
streams  frequently  strewn  with  rapids.  Champlain  was 
made  governor  of  New  France,  and  varied  his  duties 
by  taking  long  and  painful  journeys  into  the  wilder- 
ness, thus  setting  the  fashion  of  extensive  exploration. 
There  were  two  very  good  reasons  for  encouraging 
explorers :  in  the  first  place,  New  France  was  then 
largely  controlled  by  a  company  of  merchants,  called 
24 


25 

the  Hundred  Associates,  who  desired  to  push  the  fur 
trade  far  and  wide  among  the  savage  tribes;  in  the 
second  place,  the  French  Catholic  missionary  priests 
were  anxious  to  reach  the  Indians,  to  convert  them  to 
the  Christian  religion.  Thus  it  came  about  that,  dur- 
ing the  twenty-five  years  when  the  energetic  and 
enterprising  Champlain  was  governor,  there  was  little 
talked  or  thought  about  in  New  France  but  explora- 
tion, the  fur  trade,  and  the  missions  to  the  Indians. 

In  order  to  carry  out  his  schemes  for  opening  new 
fields  to  the  traders  and  missionaries,  Champlain  found 
it  necessary  to  train  young  men  to  this  work.  Only 
those  were  selected  for  the  task  who  had  a  fair  edu- 
cation, and  were  healthy,  strong,  well-formed,  and  brave. 
They  were,  often  when  mere  boys,  sent  far  up  into 
the  country  to  live  among  the  Indian  tribes,  to  be 
adopted  by  them,  to  learn  their  habits  and  languages, 
and  to  harden  themselves  to  the  rough  life  and  rude  diet 
of  the  dusky  dwellers  in  the  forest.  It  took  several 
years  of  this  practice,  with  patient  suffering,  for  a  youth 
to  become  an  expert  who  could  be  trusted  to  undergo 
any  hardship  or  daring  task  that  might  be  asked  of  him. 
It  was  one  of  these  forest-bred  interpreters  who  became 
the  first  white  discoverer  of  Wisconsin. 

In  those  early  days  of  New  France,  most  of  its  people 
were  from  the  west  and  northwest  provinces  of  France. 
The  crews  of  the  ships  which  engaged  in  the  trade  to 
New  France  were  nearly  all  from  the  ports  of  Rouen, 
Honfleur,  Fecamp,  Cherbourg,  Havre,  Dieppe,  and 
Caen  ;  in  these  north-coast  cities  lived  the  greater  part 
of  the  Hundred  Associates,  and  from  their  vicinity 


26 

came  nearly  all  of  the  Jesuit  missionaries  and  the  young 
men  who  were  trained  as  interpreters. 

Jean  Nicolet  was  born  in  or  near  Cherbourg,  and 
was  the  son  of  a  mail  carrier.  He  was  about  twenty 
years  of  age  when,  in  1618,  he  arrived  in  Quebec; 
"and  forasmuch  as,"  says  an  old  Jesuit  writer  of  that 
time,  "  his  nature  and  excellent  memory  inspired  good 
hopes  of  him,  he  was  sent  to  winter  with  the  Island 
Algonkins,  in  order  to  learn  their  language.  He 
tarried  with  them  two  years,  alone  of  the  French, 
and  always  joined  the  Barbarians  in  their  excursions 
and  journeys,  undergoing  such  fatigues  as  none  but 
eyewitnesses  can  conceive ;  he  often  passed  seven  or 
eight  days  without  food,  and  once,  full  seven  weeks  with 
no  other  nourishment  than  a  little  bark  from  the  trees." 
These  "Island  Algonkins"  lived  on  Allumettes  Island 
in  the  Ottawa  River,  nearly  three  hundred  miles  from 
Quebec  ;  their  language  was  the  principal  one  then  used 
by  the  Indians  in  the  country  on  the  north  bank  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  in  the  great  valley  of  the  Ottawa. 

Although  the  life  was  so  hard  that  few  white  men 
could  endure  it,  Nicolet,  like  most  of  the  other  inter- 
preters, learned  to  enjoy  it ;  and,  passing  from  one 
tribe  to  another,  in  his  search  for  new  languages  and 
experiences,  he  remained  among  his  forest  friends  for 
eight  or  nine  years.  He  had  been  with  the  Algonkins 
for  three  or  four  years  when  he  went,  at  the  head  of 
four  hundred  of  them,  into  the  Iroquois  country,  and 
made  a  treaty  of  peace  with  this  savage  foe,  whom  the 
Algonkins  always  greatly  feared.  It  is  related  that 
thence  he  went  to  dwell  with  the  Nipissing  Indians,  liv- 


27 

ing  about  Lake  Nipissing,  "where  he  passed  for  one 
of  that  nation,  taking  part  in  the  very  frequent  councils 
of  those  tribes,  having  his  own  separate  cabin  and 
household,  and  fishing  and  trading  for  himself." 

Possibly  Nicolet  might  have  been  recalled  from  the 
woods  before  this,  but,  between  1629  and  1632,  Can- 
ada was  in  the  hands  of  the  British  ;  and  he  re- 
mained among  the  Indians,  inspiring  them  to  hostility 
against  the  strangers.  In  1632,  when  the  country  was 
released  to  France,  Champlain  and  his  fellow-officers 
returned  to  Quebec,  and  Nicolet  was  summoned  thither, 
and  was  employed  as  clerk  and  interpreter  by  the 
Hundred  Associates. 

Champlain  was  eager  to  resume  his  explorations. 
He  had  once  been  up  the  great  Ottawa  River,  and 
thence  had  crossed  over  to  Lake  Huron,  and  had  be- 
come keenly  interested  in  what  were  then  termed  the 
"upper  waters."  Of  Lakes  Ontario  and  Erie  he  knew 
nothing,  for  the  dreaded  Iroquois  had  prevented  the 
French  from  going  that  way ;  and  Lakes  Superior  and 
Michigan  were,  as  yet,  undiscovered  by  whites.  Vague 
rumors  of  these  unknown  regions  had  been  brought  to 
Quebec  by  bands  of  strange  savages  who  had  found 
their  way  down  to  the  French  settlements  in  search 
of  European  goods  in  exchange  for  furs. 

Among  the  many  queer  stories  brought  by  these 
fierce,"  painted  barbarians  was  one  which  told  of  a 
certain  "Tribe  of  the  Sea"  dwelling  far  away  on 
the  western  banks  of  the  "upper  waters,"  a  people 
who  had  come  out  of  the  West,  no  man  knew  whence. 
In  those  early  days,  Europeans  still  clung  to  the 


28 

notion  which  Columbus  had  always  held,  that 
America  was  but  an  eastern  projection  of  Asia.  This 
is  the  reason  that  our  savages  were  called  Indians, 
for  the  discoverers  of  America  thought  they  had 
merely  reached  an  outlying  portion  of  India ;  they 
had  no  idea  that  this  was  a  great  and  new  continent. 
Governor  Champlain,  and  after  him  Governor  Fron- 
tenac,  and  the  great  explorer  La  Salle,  all  supposed 
that  they  could  reach  India  and  China,  already  known 
to  travelers  to  the  east,  by  persistently  going  westward. 
When,  therefore,  Champlain  heard  of  these  strange 
Men  of  the  Sea,  he  at  once  declared  they  must  be  the 
long-sought  Chinese.  He  engaged  Nicolet,  in  whom 
he  had  great  confidence,  to  go  out  and  find  them,  wher- 
ever they  were,  make  a  treaty  of  peace  with  them,  and 
secure  their  trade. 

Upon  the  first  day  of  July,  1634,  Nicolet  left  Quebec, 
a  passenger  in  the  second  of  two  ^  fleets  of  canoes  con- 
taining Indians  from  the  Ottawa  valley,  who  had  come 
down  to  the  white  settlements  to  trade.  Among  his 
fellow  passengers  were  three  adventurous  Jesuit  mis- 
sionaries, who  were  on  their  way  to  the  country  of  the 
Huron  tribe,  east  of  Lake  Huron.  Leaving  the  priests 
at  Allumettes  Island,  he  continued  up  the  Ottawa, 
then  crossed  over  to  Lake  Nipissing,  visited  old  friends 
among  the  Indians  there,  and  descended  French  Creek, 
which  flows  from  Lake  Nipissing  into  Georgian  Bay,  a 
northeastern  arm  of  Lake  Huron.  On  the  shores  of 
the  great  lake,  he  engaged  seven  Hurons  to  paddle 
his  long  birch-bark  canoe  and  guide  him  to  the  mysteri- 
ous "  Tribe  of  the  Sea." 


2Q 

Slowly  they  felt  their  way  along  the  northern  shores 
of  Lake  Huron,  where  the  pine  forests  sweep  majes- 
tically down  to  the  water's  edge,  or  crown  the  bold 
cliffs,  while  southward  the  green  waters  of  the  inland 
sea-  stretch  away  to  the  horizon.  Storms  too  severe 
for  their  frail  craft  frequently  detained  them  on  the 
shore,  and  daily  they  sought  food  in  the  forest.  The 
savage  crew,  tiring  of  exertion,  and  overcome  by  super- 
stitious fears,  would  fain  have  abandoned  the  voyage  ; 
but  the  strong,  energetic  master  bore  down  all  opposi- 
tion. At  last  they  reached  the  outlet  of  Lake  Superior, 
the  forest-girt  Strait  of  St.  Mary,  and  paddled  up  as 
far  as  the  falls,  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  as  it  came  to  be 
called  by  the  Jesuit  missionaries.  Here  there  was  a 
large  village  of  Algonkins,  where  the  explorer  tarried, 
refreshing  his  crew  and  gathering  information  concern- 
ing the  "  Tribe  of  the  Sea."  The  explorers  do  not 
appear  to  have  visited  Lake  Superior ;  but,  bolder 
than  before,  they  set  forth  to  the  southwest,  and  pass- 
ing gayly  through  the  island-dotted  Straits  of  Mack- 
inac,  now  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  world's  highways, 
were  soon  upon  the  broad  waters  of  Lake  Michigan, 
of  which  Nicolet  was  probably  the  first  white  dis- 
coverer. 

Clinging  still  to  the  northern  shore,  camping  in  the 
dense  woods  at  night  or  when  threatened  by  storm, 
Nicolet  rounded  far-stretching  Point  Detour  and  landed 
upon  the  shores  of  Bay  de  Noquet,  a  northern,  arm  of 
Green  Bay.  Another  Algonkin  tribe  dwelt  here,  with 
whom  the  persistent  explorer  smoked  the  pipe  of  peace, 
and  they  gave  him  further  news  of  the  people  he 


30 

sought.  Next  he  stopped  at  the  mouth  of  the  Menom- 
inee  River,  now  the  northeast  boundary  between  \Vis- 
consin  and  Michigan,  where  the  Menominee  tribe  lived. 
Another  council  was  held,  more  tobacco  was  smoked, 
and  one  of  Nicolet's  Huron  companions  was  sent  for- 
ward to  notify  the  Winnebagoes  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Fox  River  that  the  great  white  chief  was  approach- 
ing; for  the  uncouth  Winnebagoes  were  the  far-famed 
"Tribe  of  the  Sea"  whom  Nicolet  had  traveled  so  far 
to  find. 

The  manner  of  their  obtaining  this  name,  which  had 
so  misled  Champlain,  is  curious.  The  word  was  origi- 
nally "  ouinepeg,"  or  "  ouinepego,"  and  both  Winnipeg 
and  Winnebago  are  derived  from  it.  Now  "  ouinepeg  " 
was  an  Algonkin  term  meaning  "  men  of  (or  from)  the 
fetid  (or  bad-smelling)  water."  •  Possibly  the  tribe,  far 
back  in  their  history,  once  dwelt  by  a  strong-smelling 
sulphur  spring.  The  French,  in  their  eagerness  to  find 
China,  fancied  that  the  fetid  water  must  necessarily  be 
salt  water,  hence  the  Western  Ocean  or  "China  Sea;" 
that  is  why  they  called  the  Winnebagoes  the  "  Tribe 
of  the  Sea,"  and  jumped  at  the  conclusion  that  they 
were  Chinese. 

By  this  time,  Nicolet  had  his  doubts  about  meeting 
Chinese  at  Green  Bay.  As,  however,  he  had  brought 
with  him  "  a  grand  robe  of  China  damask,  all  strewn 
with  flowers,  and  birds  of  many  colors,"  such  as 
Chinese  mandarins  are  supposed  to  wear,  he  put  it 
on  ;  and  when  he  landed  on  the  shore  of  Fox  River, 
where  is  now  the  city  of  Green.  Bay,  strode  forward 
into  the  group  of  waiting,  skin-clad  savages,  discharg- 


ing  the  pistols  which  he  held  in  either  hand.  Women 
and  children  fled  in  terror  to  the  wigwams  ;  and  the 
warriors  fell  down  and  worshiped  this  Manitou  (or 
spirit)  who  carried  with  him  thunder  and  lightning. 

"  The  news  of  his  coming,"  says  the  old  Jesuit  chron- 
icler, "  quickly  spread  to  the  places  round  about,  and 
there  assembled  four  or  five  thousand  men.  Each  of 


the  Chief  men  made  a  feast  for  him,  and  at  one  of 
these  banquets  they  served  at  least  six-score  Beavers." 
There  was  a  great  deal  of  oratory  at  these  feasts,  with 
the  exchange  of  belts  of  wampum,  and  the  smoking 
of  pipes  of  peace,  and  no  end  of  assurances  on  the 
part  of  the  red  men  that  they  were  glad  to  become  the 
friends  of  New  France  and  to  keep  the  peace  with 
the  great  French  father  at  Paris. 


32 

Leaving  his  new  friends  at  Green  Bay,  the  explorer 
ascended  the  Fox  River  as  far  as  the  Mascoutins,  who 
had  a  village  upon  a  prairie  ridge,  near  where  Berlin 
now  lies.  He  made  a  similar  treaty  with  this  people, 
and  learned  of  the  Wisconsin  River  which  flows  into 
the  Mississippi,  but  did  not  go  to  seek  it.  He  then 
walked  overland  to  the  tribe  of  the  Illinois,  probably 
returning  to  Quebec,  in  1635,  by  way  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan. Nicolet  had  proceeded  over  nearly  two  thousand 
five  hundred  miles  of  lake,  river,  forest,  and  prairie; 
had  been  subjected  to  a  thousand  dangers  from  man 
and  beast,  as  well  as  from  fierce  rapids  and  storm- 
tossed  waters ;  had  made  treaties  "with  several  here- 
tofore unknown  tribes,  and  had  widely  extended  the 
boundaries  of  New  France. 

For  various  reasons,  it  was  nearly  thirty  years  before 
another  visit  was  made  by  white  men  to  Wisconsin. 
Nicolet  himself  soon  settled  down  at  the  new  town  of 
Three  Rivers,  on  the  shores  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  be- 
tween Quebec  and  Montreal,  as  the  agent  and  inter- 
preter there  of  the  great  fur  trade  company.  He  was 
a  very  useful  man  both  to  the  company  and  to  the 
missionaries ;  for  he  had  great  influence  over  the 
Indians,  who  loved  him  sincerely,  and  he  always  ex- 
ercised this  influence  for  the  good  of  the  colony  and  of 
religion.  He  was  drowned  in  the  month  of  October, 
1642,  while  on  his  way  to  release  a  poor  savage  pris- 
oner who  was  being  maltreated  by  Indians  in  the  neigh- 
borhood. 


RADISSON    AND  GROSEILLIERS 

IN  the  preceding  chapter,  the  story  was  told  how, 
in  the  year  1634,  only  fourteen  years  after  the 
Pilgrims  landed  on  Plymouth  Rock,  Jean  Nicolet  was 
sent  by  Governor  Champlain,  of  Quebec,  all  the  way 
out  to  Wisconsin,  to  make  friends  with  our  Indians, 
and  to  induce  them  to  trade  at  the  French  villages 
on  the  lower  St.  Lawrence  River.  Whether  any  of 
them  did,  as  a  result  of  this  visit,  go  down  to  see  the 
palefaces  at  Three  Rivers  or  Quebec,  and  carry  furs 
to  exchange  for  European  beads,  hatchets,  guns,  and 
iron  kettles,  we  do  not  know ;  there  is  no  record  of  their 
having  done  so,  neither  are  we  aware  that  any  white 
man  soon  followed  Nicolet  to  Wisconsin. 

Fur  traders  were  in  the  habit  of  wandering  far  into 
the  woods,  and  meeting  strange  tribes  of  Indians;  some- 
times they  would  not  return  to  Quebec  until  after  years 
of  absence,  and  then  would  bring  with  them  many 
canoe-loads  of  skins.  The  fur  trade  was  under  the 
control  of  the  Company  of  the  Hundred  Associates. 
The  laws  of  New  France  declared  that  there  could  be 
no  traffic  with  the  Indians,  except  what  this  great  com- 
pany approved;  for  they  had  bought  from  the  king  of 
France  the  right  to  do  all  the  trading  and  make  all 

STO.   OF  BADGER  STA.  —  3        33 


34 

the  profits,  and  New  France  really  existed  only  to  make 
money  for  these  rich  Associates.  The  fur  trade  laws 
provided  severe  punishments  for  those  violating  them ; 
nevertheless,  although  the  population  was  small,  and 
everybody  knew  everybody  else  in  the  whole  country, 
there  were  many  brave,  daring  men  who  traveled  through 
the  deep  forests,  traded  with  the  Indians  on  their  own 
account,  ami  paid  no  license  fees  to  the  Associates. 
These  men,  whom  an  oppressive  monopoly  could  not 
keep  down,  were  the  most  venturesome  explorers  in  all 
this  vast  region ;  they  were  known  as  courenrs  dcs  bois, 
or  "wood  rangers."  La  Salle,  Duluth,  Perrot,  and 
many  other  early  Western  explorers,  were,  at  times  in 
their  career,  courenrs  des  bois. 

Now,  as  a  courcur  dc  bois  was  an  outlaw,  because 
he  wandered  and  traded  without  a  license,  naturally  he 
was  not  in  the  habit  of  telling  where  he  had  been  or 
what  he  had  seen  ;  then  again,  though  brave  men,  few 
of  these  outlaws  were  educated,  hence  they  seldom 
wrote  journals  of  their  travels.  For  these  reasons, 
we  are  often  obliged  to  depend  on  chance  references 
to  them,  in  the  writings  of  others,  and  to  patch  up  our 
evidence  as  to  their  movements,  out  of  many  stray 
fragments  of  information. 

So  far  as  we  at  present  know,  there  were  no  white 
men  in  Wisconsin  during  the  twenty  years  following 
the  coming  of  Nicolet.  It  is  uncertain  when  the  next 
white  men  came  upon  our  soil,  but  there  is  good  reason 
to  believe  that  it  was  in  the  autumn  of  1654.  These 
men  were  Pierre-Esprit  Radisson  and  Medard  Chouart 
des  Groseilliers.  Like  so  many  others  in  New  France, 


35 

they  were  from  the  northern  part  of  old  France,  and 
came  to  Canada  while  yet  lads,  Groseilliers  in  1641, 
and  Radisson  ten  years  later.  In  1653,  Groseilliers 
married  a  sister  of  Radisson,  and  after  that  the  two 
men  became  inseparable  companions  in  their  long  and 
romantic  wanderings. 

They  experienced  a  number  of  thrilling  adventures 
with  Indians,  both  as  traders  to  the  forest  camps  of 
savages  friendly  to  New  France,  and  as  prisoners  in 
the  hands  of  the  French-hating-  Iroquois  of  New  York. 
Nevertheless  they  had  grown  accustomed  to  the  hard, 
perilous  life  of  the  wilderness,  and  were  thoroughly  in 
love  with  it.  It  was,  as  near  as  we  can  ascertain,  early 
in  the  month  of  August,  1654,  when  these  two  adven- 
turers started  out  "  to  discover  the  great  lakes  that  they 
heard  the  wild  men  speak  of."  They  followed,  most 
of  the  way,  in  the  footsteps  of  Nicolet,  up  the  Ottawa 
River,  and  by  the  way  of  Lake  Nipissing  and  French 
River  to  Georgian  Bay  of  Lake  Huron.  This  had  now 
become  a  familiar  route  to  the  fur  traders  and  Jesuit 
missionaries  ;  but  of  the  country  west  of  the  eastern 
shore  of  Lake  Huron  scarcely  anything  was  yet  known, 
.except  what  vague  and  often  fanciful  reports  of  it 
were  brought  by  the  savages. 

Like  Nicolet,  our  two  adventurous  explorers  traveled 
by  canoes,  with  Indians  to  do  the  paddling.  Passing 
between  the  Manitoulin  Islands,  in  the  northern  waters 
of  Lake  Huron,  they  visited  and  traded  with  the  Huron 
Indians  there,  thence  proceeded  through  the  Straits  of 
Mackinac,  and  across  to  the  peninsula  of  Door  county, 
which  separates  Green  Bay  from  Lake  Michigan.  Here 


they  spent  the  winter  with  the  Pottawattomies  ;  they  held 
great  feasts  with  them,  at  which  dogs  and  beavers,  boiled 
in  kettles  into  a  sort  of  thick  soup,  were  the  greatest  deli- 
cacies ;  they  smoked  pipes  of  peace  with  them,  at  wordy 
councils  which  often  lasted  through  several  days ;  they 
hunted  and  fished  with  them,  in  a  spirit  of  good  fellow- 
y^  ship ;  and,  in  general,  they  shared 
'y&££ir'''.  the  fortunes  of  their  forest 

friends,  whether  feasting 
or   starving,    after   the 
manner  of    all   these 
early  French  explor- 
ers   and    fur   traders. 
In  the    curious   jour- 
nal afterward  written 
in  wretched  but  pic- 
turesque English  by 
Radisson,    he   says, 
"  We     weare     every 
where  much  made  of ; 
neither    wanted    vict- 
ualls,  for   all  the   dif- 
ferent nations  that  we 
mett   conducted    us    & 
furnished  us  wth  all  necessaries." 

Springtime  (1655)  came  at  last,  and  the  two  traders 
proceeded  merrily  up  the  Fox  River,  still  in  the  wake 
of  Nicolet,  past  the  sites  of  the  present  cities  of  Green 
Bay,  De  Pere,  Kaukauna,  Appleton,  Neenah,  and  Me- 
nasha.  They  frequently  had  to  carry  their  boats  around 
the  rapids  and  waterfalls,  but  after  passing  Doty's  Island 


37 

they  had  a  smooth  highway.  Paddling  through  Lake 
Winnebago,  and  past  the  site  of  Oshkosh,  then  an 
Indian  village,  they  pushed  on  through  the  winding 
reaches  of  the  Upper  Fox,  and  at  last  came  to  a  broad 
prairie  near  Berlin,  whereon  was  stationed  the  village 
of  the  Mascoutins,  or  Fire  Nation. 

The  Mascoutins  treated  the  strangers,  as  they  had 
Nicolet,  with  great  kindness.  With  this  village  as 
headquarters,  the  explorers  made  frequent  expeditions, 
"anxious  to  be  knowne  with  the  remotest  people." 
Radisson  quaintly  writes,  "  We  ware  4  moneths  in  our 
voyage  without  doeing  any  thing  but  goe  from  river 
to  river."  The  explorers  cared  little,  we  may  suppose, 
except  to  have  a  good  time  and  make  a  profitable 
trade  with  the  Indians  ;  they  do  not  appear  to  have 
made  any  map.  Writing  about  their  travels,  many 
years  after,  Radisson  says,  in  one  place,  that  they  went 
into  a  "  great  river  "  which  flowed  southward,  and  jour- 
neyed to  a  land  of  continual  warmth,  finer  than  Italy, 
where  he  heard  the  Indians  describe  certain  white  men 
living  to  the  south,  who  might  be  Spaniards.  It  is 
supposed  by  many  historians  that  Radisson  meant  that 
he  was  on  the  Mississippi ;  if  this  supposition  be  true, 
then  the  two  explorers  undoubtedly  found  the  great 
river  by  going  up  the  Fox  from  the  Mascoutin  vil- 
lage, carrying  their  canoe  over  the  mile  and  a  half  of 
intervening  marsh  at  Portage,  and  gliding  down  the 
Wisconsin  to  its  junction  with  the  Mississippi  at  Prairie 
du  Chien.  This  is  important,  for  the  credit  of  discover- 
ing the  Upper  Mississippi  is  usually  given  to  Louis 
Joliet  and  Father  Marquette,  who  took  this  very  course 


in  1673,  eighteen  years  later.  But  the  whole  question 
of  what  "great  river"  Radisson  meant  to  describe  is 
so  involved  in  doubt,  that  very  likely  we  shall  never 
know  the  truth  about  it. 

Leaving  their  Mascoutin  friends  at  last,  apparently 
in  the  autumn  of  1655,  the  two  adventurers  returned 
down  the  Fox  River  to  Green  Bay ;  thence  on  to  the 
large  villages  of  Indians  which  clustered  around  the 
Sault  Ste.  Marie.  Received  there,  as  elsewhere,  with 
much  feasting  and  good  will,  Radisson  and  Groseilliers 
conducted  trade  with  their  hosts,  and  explored  a  long 
stretch  of  the  southern  coast  of  Lake  Superior,  but  do 
not  appear  to  have  ventured  so  far  as  the  Pictured 
Rocks.  They  also  made  long  expeditions  into  the 
country,  on  snowshoes,  to  visit  and  trade  with  other 
tribes  in  the  Michigan  Peninsula  and  northern  Wis- 
consin, and  even  as  far  off  as  Hudson  Bay,  at  one 
time  being  accompanied  by  a  hundred  and  fifty  Indian 
hunters. 

In  this  wild  fashion  they  spent  the  winter  of  1655-56, 
and  finally  reached  Quebec  in  August,  1656.  They  had 
been  absent  from  home  for  two  years,  and  had  ex- 
perienced many  singular  adventures.  It  happened  that 
during  their  absence  the  Iroquois  had  succeeded  in 
keeping  the  Hurons  and  other  friendly  Indians  from 
visiting  Quebec,  so  that  the  fur  trade,  upon  which  New 
France  depended,  was  now  quite  ruined ;  for  this  reason 
the  arrival  of  Radisson  and  Groseilliers,  with  a  great 
store  of  furs  from  far-away  Wisconsin  and  Lake 
Superior,  was  hailed  as  a  joyful  event,  and,  despite 
their  having  departed  without  a  license,  they  were  made 


39 


welcome  at  Quebec,  the  cannons  being  fired  and 
the  people  flocking  on  the  beach  to  meet  them. 

Men  who  love  adventure  cannot 
be  kept  out  of    it   long,   what- 
ever the  risk.    Three  years 
later,  in  the  summer  of 
1659,     Radisson     and 
Groseilliers  again 
set  off  for  Lake 
Superior,  up  the 
old     Ottawa     and 
Georgian     Bay 
routes.  This  time  ; 

they   were    spe- 
cially bidden  by 
the     king's     offi- 
cers   at     Quebec 
not  to  go,  so  that 
they  were  obliged  to 
slip  off  secretly,  and 
join  a  fleet  of  Indian 
canoes   returning   home   after  the 
annual  trade  at  the  French  settlements. 

At  Sault  Ste.  Marie  they  spent  a  short  time  with  their 
savage  friends,  and  then  paddled  westward,  along  the 
southern  shore  of  Lake  Superior.  In  their  company 
were  several  Huron  and  Ottawa  Indians,  who  had 
recently  been  compelled  to  flee  to  Wisconsin  because 
of  Iroquois  raids,  which  now  extended  as  far  west  as 
Michigan.  The  travelers  were  obliged  to  carry  their 
boats  across  Keweenaw  Point,  and  at  last  found  their 


4o 

way  to  Chequamegon  Bay,  a  noble  sheet  of  water, 
hemmed  in  by  the  beautiful  Apostle  Islands,  and  to-day 
a  popular  summer  resort. 

Not  far  to  the  west  of  where  Ashland  now  lies, 
somewhere  near  VVhittlesey's  Creek,  they  built  for 
themselves  a  rude  hut,  or  fort,  of  logs.  The  place  was 
a  small  point  of  land  jutting  out  into  the  water,  a 
triangle,  Radisson  describes  it,  with  water  on  two  sides 
and  land  at  the  base.  The  land  side  of  the  triangle  was 
guarded  with  a  palisade  of  pointed  stakes,  and  to  pre- 
vent surprises  by  night,  for  Indians  were  always  prowl- 
ing about  looking  for  plunder,  the  traders  surrounded 
their  house  with  boughs  of  trees  piled  one  upon  the 
other,  intertwined  with  a  long  cord  hung  with  little  bells. 

After  staying  at  their  fort  for  a  few  weeks,  they 
managed  to  cache  (secretly  bury)  the  greater  part  of 
their  goods ;  and  then  set  out  on  a  hunt  with  their 
Huron  neighbors  upon  the  headwaters  of  the  Chippewa 
River.  Unusually  severe  weather  set  in,  and  a  famine 
ensued,  for  there  was  no  game  to  kill,  and  the  snow 
was  so  deep  that  they  could  hardly  travel. 

In  the  following  spring  (1660)  the  Frenchmen  went 
with  their  Huron s  on  a  long  search  for  provisions,  get- 
ting as  far  west  as  the  Sioux  camps  in  northern  Min- 
nesota. Then  they  returned  to  Chequamegon  Bay, 
where  they  built  another  little  fort,  and  from  which 
they  visited  some  Indians  on  the  northwest  shore  of 
Lake  Superior.  In  August  they  returned  home,  again 
in  a  fleet  of  Huron  canoes  going  down  to  Montreal  to 
trade.  But  this  time  the  officers  of  the  colony  pun- 
ished them  for  being  coureurs  des  bois,  and  confiscated 


most  of  their  valuable  furs,  which  meant  the  loss  of 
nearly  all  the  property  they  possessed. 

Angered  at  this  treatment,  Groseilliers  went  to  Paris 
to  seek  justice  from  the  king;  but,  obtaining  none, 
he  and  Radisson  offered  their  services  to  the  English, 
whom  they  told  of  Hudson  Bay  and  its  great  fur- 
trading  possibilities.  It  took  several  years,  however, 
for  negotiations  to  be  completed ;  and  it  was  while  in 
London  that  Radisson,  for  the  information  of  the 
English  king,  wrote  his  now  famous  journal  of  ex- 
plorations in  the  Lake  Superior  country.  Finally, 
after  some  unfortunate  voyages,  our  explorers,  in  1669, 
reached  Hudson  Bay  in  an  English  ship ;  and,  as  a 
result,  there  was  formed  in  England  the  great  Hud- 
son Bay  Company,  which  from  that  day  to  this  has 
controlled  the  rich  fur  trade  of  those  northern  waters. 

In  later  years  (1678),  we  find  Radisson  and  Groseil- 
liers, who  had  been  pardoned  by  Louis  XIV.,  king  of 
France,  for  their  desertion  to  the  English,  back  again 
in  Paris.  But  after  a  time,  suspicions  as  to  their  loy- 
alty spread  abroad,  and  they  again  joined  the  English, 
to  whom  they  were  useful  in  attracting  Indian  trade 
away  from  the  French  to  the  Hudson  Bay  Company. 
They  died  at  last,  in  London,  considered  by  the  French 
as  traitors  to  their  own  country.  They  will,  however, 
live  in  history  as  daring  explorers,  who  opened  to 
the  fur  trade  the  country  now  known  as  Wisconsin, 
the  waters  of  Lake  Superior,  and  the  vast  region  of 
Hudson  Bay. 


THE  STORY  OF  JOLIET   AND    MARQUETTE 

IN  history  there  are  two  "  discoveries  of  the  Missis- 
sippi";  the  lower  waters  were  discovered  by  the 
Spanish  explorer,  De  Soto  (April,  1541);  and  the  upper 
waters,  by  Frenchmen  from  Canada  or  New  France. 
Nothing  came  of  De  Soto's  discovery  for  over  a  hun- 
dred •  years,  for  the  Spaniards  had  no  love  for  ex- 
ploration that  gave  no  promise  of  mines  of  precious 
metals,  and  it  is  to  the  French  that  we  give  chief  credit 
for  finding  the  Mississippi;  for  their  discovery  imme- 
diately led  the  way  to  a  general  knowledge  of  the 
geography  and  the  savages  of  the  great  valley,  and 
to  settlements  there  by  whites. 

It  is  seldom  safe  to  say  who  was  the  first  man  to 
discover  anything,  be  it  in  geography,  in  science,  or 
in  the  arts  ;  generally,  we  can  tell  only  who  it  was 
that  made  the  first  record  of  the  discovery.  Now 
it  is  quite  possible  that  Frenchmen  may  have  wan- 
dered into  the  Upper  Mississippi  valley  before  Ra- 
disson  and  Groseilliers  appeared  in  Wisconsin  (1654); 
but,  if  they  did,  we  do  not  know  of  it.  It  is  still 
a  matter  of  dispute  whether  the  "great  river"  de- 
scribed in  Radisson's  journal  was  the  Mississippi; 
some  writers  think  that  it  was,  and  that  to  him  and  to 
42 


43 

Groseilliers  belongs  the  honor  of  the  first-recorded  dis- 
covery. Then,  again,  there  are  some  who  think  that 
in  1670  the  famous  fur  trader  La  Salle  was  upon  the 
Mississippi ;  but  that  is  a  mere  guess,  and  honors 
cannot  be  awarded  upon  guesswork.  We  do  know, 
however,  that  in  1673  Joliet  and  Marquette  set  out 
for  the  very  purpose  of  finding  the  Mississippi,  and 
succeeded ;  and  that  upon  their  return  they  wrote 
reports  of  their  trip  and  made  maps  of  the  country. 
Having  thus  opened  the  door,  as  it  were,  white  men 
were  thereafter  frequent  travelers  on  the  broad  water- 
way. Hence  it  is  idle  to  discuss  possible  previous 
visits ;  to  Joliet  and  Marquette  are  due  the  credit  of 
regular,  premeditated  discovery. 

Louis  Joliet,  who  led  this  celebrated  expedition,  was 
at  the  time  but  twenty-eight  years  old.  He  was  born 
in  Quebec,  had  been  educated  at  the  Jesuit  college 
there,  and  early  in  life  became  a  fur  trader.  He 
learned  several  Indian  languages,  and  made  numerous 
long  journeys  into  the  wilderness,  and,  like  Jean  Nico- 
let  before  him,  was  regarded  by  the  officers  and  the 
missionaries  at  Quebec  as  a  man  well  fitted  for  the 
life  of  an  explorer.  In  1671  he  went  with  Saint 
Lusson,  one  of  the  officials  of  New  France,  to  Sault 
Ste.  Marie.  St.  Lusson  made  peace  with  the  Indians 
of  the  Northwest,  and,  in  the  name  of  the  king  of 
France,  took  possession  of  all  the  country  bordering 
on  the  upper  Great  Lakes. 

Upon  returning  to  Quebec,  Joliet  met  the  famous 
Count  Frontenac,  but  recently  arrived  from  Paris, 
where  he  had  been  appointed  as  governor  of  New 


44 


France.  Frontenac  was  curious  to  know  more  about 
the  Mississippi  River,  especially  whether  it  flowed  into 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  or  the  "  Southern  Sea  "  as  it  was  then 
called  in  Europe.  In  looking  about  for  a  man  to  head 
an  expedition  to  the  great  river,  he  could  hear  of  no 
one  better  prepared  for  such  service  than  Joliet. 

In  those  early  days,  no  exploring 
party  was  complete  without  a  priest ; 
for  the  conversion  of  the  savages  to 
Christianity  was  quite  as  impor- 
tant, in  the  eyes  of  the  king,  as 
the  development 
of  the  fur  trade. 
Father  Jacques 
Marquette,  then 
thirty-six  years  of 
age,  was  the  Jesuit 
missionary  at  Point 
'/  St.  Ignace,  on  the 
Straits  of  Mackinac. 
When  Joliet  reached  that 
outpost,  after  a  long  and 
weary  canoe  voyage  up  the  now 
familiar  Ottawa  River  and  Georgian 
Bay  route,  he  delivered  orders  to  Mar- 
quette to  join  his  party.  Joliet  was  a  favorite  with  his 
old  instructors,  the  Jesuits,  so  that  the  two  young  men 
were  well  pleased  with  being  united  upon  this  project, 
Joliet  to  attend  to  the  worldly  affairs  of  the  expedi- 
tion, and  Marquette  to  the  religious.  Both  of  them 
had  had  long  training  in  the  hard  life  of  the  wilder- 


45 

ness,  and  understood  Indian  character  and  habits  as 
well  as  any  men  in  New  France. 

It  was  upon  the  i/th  of  May,  1673,  that  the  two 
explorers,  in  high  spirits,  set  forth  from  Marquette's 
little  mission  at  Point  Ignace.  Five  French  boatmen 
paddled  their  two  canoes,  and  did  most  of  the  heavy 
work  of  the  journey,  carrying  the  boats  and  cargoes 
around  rapids,  or  along  portage  trails  from  one  river  to 
another.  Marquette  says  in  his  journal:  "Our  joy  at 
being  chosen  for  this  expedition  roused  our  courage, 
and  sweetened  the  labor  of  paddling  from  morning  to 
night." 

The  course  they  took  was,  no  doubt,  that  followed 
through  nearly  two  hundred  years  thereafter  by  per- 
sons journeying  in  canoes  from  Mackinac  to  Green 
Bay.  They  paddled  along  the  northern  shores  of  Lake 
Michigan  and  Green  Bay,  until  they  could  cross  over 
through  the  stormy  water  known  as  "  Death's  Door,'' 
to  the  islands  beyond  the  Door  county  peninsula ;  and 
then  crept  down  the  east  shore  of  Green  Bay,  under 
the  lee  of  the  high  banks. 

They  seem  to  have  made  good  time,  for  on  the  7th  of 
June  they  reached  the  village  of  the  Mascoutins,  on 
the  south  shore  of  Fox  River,  near  where  Berlin  now 
is,  the  same  village,  it  will  be  remembered,  where  Nico- 
let,  Radisson,  and  Allouez  had  already  been  enter- 
tained. We  do  not  know  upon  what  day  our  two 
explorers  had  reached  De  Pere,  where  the  Jesuit 
mission  was  established,  .  but  they  probably  stayed 
among  their  friends  there  for  some  days,  before  going 
-up  the  Fox. 


46 

In  his  journal,  the  good  missionary  described  nearly 
everything  he  saw,  with  much  detail.  The  Menominee 
Indians  interested  him  greatly ;  he  calls  them  "  the 
People  of  the  Wild  Oats,"  and  tells  how  they  gather 
the  grain  of  these  wild  oats  (or  wild  rice),  by  "  shaking 
the  ears,  on  their  right  and  left,  into  the  canoe  as  they 
advance"  through  the  swamps.  Then  they  take  the 
grain  to  the  land,  strip  it  of  much  of  the  chaff,  and 
"  dry  it  in  the  smoke  on  a  wooden  lattice,  under  which 
they  keep  up  a  small  fire  for  several  days."  "  When 
the  oats  are  well  dried,  they  put  them  in  a  skin  of 
the  form  of  a  bag,  which  is  then  forced  into  a  hole 
made  on  purpose  in  the  ground ;  then  they  tread  it 
out,  so  long  and  so  well,  that  the  grain  being  freed 
from  the  chaff  is  easily  winnowed ;  after  which  they 
reduce  it  to  meal."  There  are  still  to  be  seen,  on  the 
shores  of  Lake  Koshkonong,  and  several  other  Wis- 
consin lakes  and  rivers,  the  shallow,  bowl-like  holes 
used  by  the  Indians  in  threshing  this  grain,  as  described 
by  Marquette  two  and  a  quarter  centuries  ago. 

The  Mascoutin  village  also  claims  much  attention  in 
the  missionary's  diary.  The  Mascoutins  themselves 
are  rude,  he  says ;  so  also  are  the  Kickapoos,  many  of 
whom  live  with  them.  At  this  village  are  also  many 
Miami  Indians,  who  had  fled  from  their  home's  in 
Indiana  and  Ohio,  through  fear  of  the  fierce  Iroquois 
of  New  York.  These  Miamis  are,  Marquette  tells 
us,  superior  to  the  Wisconsin  Indians,  being  "  more 
civil,  liberal,  and  better  made;  they  wear  two  long 
earlocks,  which  give  them  a  good  appearance,"  and 
are  brave,  docile,  and  devout,  listening  carefully  to  the 


47 

missionaries  who  have  visited  them.  The  Father  also 
describes  the  site  of  the  village  :  "  I  felt  no  little 
pleasure  in  beholding  the  position  of  this  town  ;  the 
view  is  beautiful  and  very  picturesque,  for  from  the 
eminence  on  which  it  is  perched,  the  eye  discovers  on 
every  side  prairies  spreading  away  beyond  its  reach, 
interspersed  with  thickets  or  groves  of  lofty  trees. 
The  soil  is  very  good,  producing  much  corn ;  the 
Indians  gather  also  quantities  of  plums  and  grapes, 
from  which  good  wine  could  be  made,  if  they  chose." 
"  As  bark  for  cabins  is  rare  in  this  country,  they  use 
rushes,  which  serve  them  for  walls  and  roof,  but  which 
are  no  great  shelter  against  the  wind,  and  still  less 
against  the  rain  when  it  falls  in  torrents.  The  advan- 
tage of  this  kind  of  cabins  is  that  they  can  roll 
them  up,  and  carry  them  easily  where  they  like  in 
hunting-time." 

Above  the  Mascoutin  village,  the  Fox  begins  to 
narrow,  being  hemmed  in,  and  often  choked,  by  broad 
swamps  of  reeds  and  wild  oats.  The  canoe  traveler 
who  does  not  know  the  channel,  is  sometimes  in  danger 
of  missing  it,  and  getting  entangled  in  the  maze  of 
bayous.  Two  Miami  guides  were  therefore  obtained 
from  their  hosts,  and  on  the  loth  of  June  the  travelers 
set  off  for  the  southwest,  "  in  the  sight  of  a  great 
crowd,  who  could  not  wonder  enough  to  see  seven 
Frenchmen  alone  in  two  canoes,  dare  to  undertake  so 
strange  and  so  hazardous  an  expedition."  The  guides 
safely  conducted  them  to  the  place  where  is  now  sit- 
uated the  city  of  Portage,  helped  them  over  the  swampy 
plain  of  a  mile  and  a  half  in  width,  and,  after  seeing 


48 

them  embarked  upon  the  broad  waters  of  the  Wis- 
consin River,  left  them  "  alone  in  an  unknown  country, 
in  the  hands  of  Providence." 

The  broad  valley  of  the  Wisconsin  presents  a  far 
different  appearance  from  that  of  the  peacefully  flow- 
ing Upper  Fox,  with  its  outlying  marshes  of  reeds,  and 
its  numerous  lakes.  The  Wisconsin,  or  Meskousing, 
as  Marquette  writes  it,  is  flanked  by  ranges  of  bold, 
heavily  wooded  bluffs,  which  are  furrowed  with  roman- 
tic ravines,  while  the  channel  is,  at  low  water,  studded 
with  islands  and  sand  bars,  and  in  times  of  flood 
spreads  to  a  great  width.  Marquette  himself  describes 
it  thus :  "  It  is  very  broad,  with  a  sandy  bottom, 
forming  many  shallows,  which  render  navigation  very 
difficult.  It  is  full  of  vine-clad  islets.  On  the  banks 
appear  fertile  lands  diversified  with  wood,  prairie,  and 
hill.  Here  you  find  oaks,  walnut,  whitewood,  and  an- 
other kind  of  tree  with  branches  armed  with  long 
thorns.  We  saw  no  small  game  or  fish,  but  deer  and 
moose  in  considerable  numbers."  About  ninety  miles 
below  Portage,  they  thought  that  they  discovered  an 
iron  mine. 

At  last,  on  the  i/th  of  June,  they  swiftly  glided 
through  the  picturesque  delta  of  the  Wisconsin,  near 
Prairie  du  Chien,  and  found  themselves  upon  the 
Mississippi,  grateful  that  after  so  long  and  tiresome  a 
journey  they  had  found  the  object  of  their  search. 
Joliet's  instructions  were,  however,  to  ascertain  whether 
the  great  stream  flowed  into  the  "Southern  Sea";  so 
they  journeyed  as  far  down  as  the  mouth  of  the 
Arkansas.  There  they  gathered  information  from 


49 

the  Indians  which  led  them  to  believe  that  the  river 
emptied  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico ;  thus  the  old  riddle 
of  the  supposed  waterway  through  the  heart  of  the 
North  American  continent  was  left  unsolved. 

In  returning,  Joliet  and  Marquette  came  up  the  Illi- 
nois River,  and  reached  Lake  Michigan  by  portaging 
over  to  the  Chicago  River.  They  were  back  at  the 
Jesuit  mission  at  De  Pere,  in  September.  Marquette 
having  fallen  ill,  Joliet  was  obliged  to  return  to  Quebec 
alone,  leaving  the  missionary  to  spend  the  winter  with 
his  Wisconsin  friends.  When  almost  within  sight  of 
the  French  settlement  at  Montreal,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Ottawa  River,  poor  Joliet  lost  all  his  papers  in  the  dan- 
gerous Lachine  rapids,  and  could  make  only  a  verbal 
report  to  the  government.  He  later  prepared  a  map 
of  his  route,  with  great  care,  and  forwarded  that  to 
France ;  it  is  one  of  the  best  maps  of  the  interior  parts 
of  North  America  made  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
Joliet,  as  the  leader  of  the  expedition,  had  hoped  to 
receive,  either  in  office  or  lands,  substantial  rewards 
for  his  great  discoveries ;  but  there  were  now  new 
officials  at  Quebec,  with  whom  he  had  little  influence, 
and  the  recompense  of  this  brave  spirit  was  small. 
Others  reaped  what  advantages  there  were  in  the  open- 
ing of  the  Mississippi  valley  to  the  fur  trade. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  unworldly  priest  who  was  his 
friend  and  companion,  and  who  neither  desired  nor 
needed  special  recognition  for  what  he  had  done,  has, 
all  unconsciously,  won  most  of  the  glory  of  this  bril- 
liant enterprise.  Under  the  rules  of  the  Jesuit  order, 
each  missionary  in  New  France  was  obliged  to  forward 

STO.    OF   BADGER   STA.  —  4 


to  his  superior  at  Quebec,  once  each  year,  a  written 
journal  of  his  doings.  Marquette  prepared  his  report 
at  leisure  during  the  winter,  while, at  De  Pere,  and  in 
the  spring  sent  it  down  to  Quebec,  by  an  Indian  who 
was  going  thither  to  trade  with  the  whites.  Accom- 
panying it  was  a  crudely  drawn  but  fairly  accurate  map 
of  the  Mississippi  basin.  The  journal  and  map  arrived 
safely,  but  for  some  reason  nei- 
ther was  then  printed  ;  indeed, 
they  remained  almost  unknown 
to  the  world  for  a  hundred  and 
seventy-nine  years,  being  at  last 
published  in  1852.  Marquette 
never  learned  the  fate  of  either 
Joliet's  elaborate  records  or  his 
own  simple  story  of  the  expe- 
dition, for  he  died  in  May,  1675, 
on  the  eastern  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan,  worn  out  by  disease 
and  by  excessive  labors  in  be- 
half of  the  Indians. 

By  the  time  Marquette's  jour- 
nal was  finally  published,  Joliet 
had  been  well-nigh  forgotten  ; 
and  to  Marquette,  because  his  journal  was  the  only  one 
printed,  is  given  the  chief  credit  in  nearly  every  Amer- 
ican history.  The  legislature  of  Wisconsin  has  placed 
a  beautiful  marble  statue  of  the  gentle  Marquette,  as 
the  discoverer  of  the  Mississippi,  in  the  capitol  in 
Washington ;  whereas  the  name  of  his  sturdy  chief  is 
perpetuated  only  in  the  principal  prison  city  of  Illinois. 


THE  JESUIT  MISSIONARIES 

IN  planting  settlements  in  Canada  (or  New  France, 
as  it  was  then  called),  the  French  had  two  principal 
objects  in  view :  the  fur  trade  with  the  Indians,  and 
the  conversion  of  these  Indians  to  the  Christian  reli- 
gion. Roman  Catholic  missionaries  from  France  there- 
fore accompanied  the  first  settlers,  and  were  always 
prominent  in  the  affairs  of  the  colony.  Governor 
Champlain  brought  to  Quebec  some  missionaries  of 
the  Recollect  order,  a  branch  of  the  Franciscans ;  but 
after  a  few  years,  the  difficulties  of  their  task  proved 
so  great  that  the  Recollects  asked  the  Jesuits,  a  much 
stronger  order,  to  come  over  and  help  them.  It  was 
not  long  before  nearly  all  the  Franciscans  returned 
home,  and  the  Jesuits  were  practically  the  only  mis- 
sionaries in  New  France. 

During  the  first  few  years,  these  missionaries  spent 
their  winters  in  Quebec,  ministering  to  the  colonists, 
and  each  spring  went  out  to  meet  the  Indians  in  their 
summer  camps.  It  was  soon  found,  however,  that 
greater  persistence  was  needed ;  and  after  that,  instead 
of  returning  home  in  the  autumn,  they  followed  the 
savages  upon  their  winter  hunts.  In  order  to  convert 
the  Indians,  the  missionaries  studied  their  many  lan- 
51 


52 

guages,  their  habits,  and  their  manner  of  thought, 
lived  as  they  lived,  and  with  them  often  suffered  un- 
told misery,  for  life  in  a  savage  camp  is  sometimes 
almost  unbearable  to  educated  and  refined  white  men, 
such  as  the  French  Jesuits  were.  They  did  not  suc- 
ceed in  winning  over  to  Christianity  many  of  their  sav- 
age companions ;  indeed,  the  latter  frequently  treated 
them  with  great  cruelty,  and  several  of  the  missionaries 
were  tortured  to  death. 

Such  were  the  ignorance  and  superstition  of  the 
Indians,  that  every  disaster  which  happened  to  them, 
poor  luck  in  hunting,  famine,  accident,  or  disease,  was 
attributed  to  the  "  black  gowns,"  as  the  Jesuits  were 
called  because  of  their  long  black  cassocks.  When 
the  missionaries  were  performing  the  rites  of  their 
church,  baptizing  children  or  sick  people,  or  saying 
mass,  it  was  thought  by  these  simple  barbarians  that 
they  were  practicing  magic  for  the  destruction  of  the 
red  men.  Thus  the  Jesuits,  during  the  hundred  years 
or  more  which  they  spent  in  traveling  far  and  near 
through  the  forests  of  New  France,  seeking  new  tribes 
to  convert,  while  still  laboring  with  those  already 
known,  were  in  a  state  of  perpetual  martyrdom  for 
the  cause  of  Christianity.  No  soldier  has  ever  per- 
formed greater  acts  of  heroism  than  these  devoted  dis- 
ciples of  the  cross.  Several  of  the  best  and  bravest 
of  them  were  among  the  pioneers  of  the  Wisconsin 
wilderness. 

The  first  Jesuit  missionary  to  come  to  Wisconsin  was 
Father  Ren6  M^nard  (pr.  Ray-nay'  May-nar'}.  He  had 
sailed  from  France  to  Canada  in  the  year  1640,  when 


53 

he  was  thirty-five  years  old,  and  on  his  arrival  was  sent 
to  the  savages  east  of  Lake  Huron,  among  whom  he 
labored  and  suffered  for  eight  years.  Later,  he  went  to 
the  Iroquois,  in  New  York,  and  at  last  had  to  fly  for 
his  life,  on  account  of  an  Indian  plot  to  murder  all  the 
French  missionaries  in  that  country.  He  was  for  some 
time  the  superior  of  his  order,  at  the  Three  Rivers 
mission,  on  the  St.  Lawrence-,  halfway  between  Que- 
bec and  Montreal,  and  in  the  early  autumn  of  1660 
was  summoned  to  go  to  Lake  Superior,  which  had 
been  made  known  through  the  explorations  of  Radis- 
son  and  Groseilliers. 

These  brave  adventurers  had  returned  from  their 
second  voyage  into  the  Northwest,  accompanied  by  a 
fleet  of  Indian  canoes ;  several  of  the  canoes  were 
manned  by  Hurons  from  the  Black  River,  who  had 
come  down  all  the  way  to  Montreal  to  trade  their  furs 
for  European  goods.  The  red  men  spent  some  ten 
days  there,  feasting  with  the  fur  trade  agents,  and 
about  *he  first  of  September  set  out  on  their  return. 
With  them  were  Menard,  his  servant,  and  seven  other 
Frenchmen. 

Menard  was  now  only  fifty-five  years  old,  but  so 
severe  had  been  his  life  among  the  Indians,  that  his 
hair  was  white,  he  was  covered  with  the  scars  of 
wounds,  and  "  his  form  was  bent  as  with  great  age." 
The  long  journey  was  therefore  a  severe  strain  upon 
the  good  man,  for  in  addition  to  the  exposure  to 
weather,  he  was  forced  to  paddle  most  of  the  time,  to 
carry  heavy  packs  over  the  numerous  portage  trails, 
and  to  suffer  many  indignities  at  the  hands  of  his  hosts. 


54 


deplorable  condition. 


By  the  time  the  company  had  finally  made  their  weary 
way  up  the  Ottawa  River,  over  to  Georgian  Bay,  and 
through  to  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  the  missionary  was  in  a 
An  accident  happened  to  his 
,-  canoe,  and  the  Frenchmen 
and  three  Indians 
were  abandoned  on 
the  south  shore  of 
Lake  Superior,  at  Ke- 
weenaw Bay.  There 
he  was  forced  to 
spend  the  winter  in  a  squalid 
Ottawa  village,  and  nearly  lost 
his  life  in  a  famine  which  over- 
took the  natives  of  that  region. 
In  the  spring  of  1661,  while  at 
Keweenaw  Bay,  Menard  received  an 
invitation  to  visit  a  band  of  poor,  starving 
Hurons  at  the  headwaters  of  the  Black  River. 
Several  of  these  Indians  had  been  baptized  by  Jesuits 
before  the  Iroquois  had  driven  them  out  from  their  old 
home  to  the  east  of  Lake  Huron.  In  spite  of  his  weak 
condition,  and  the  many  perils  of  this  journey  of  a 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  through  the  dense  forest,  the 
aged  missionary  bade  farewell  to  the  Keweenaw  Otta- 
was,  among  whom  had  also  wintered  several  French 
fur  traders,  and  in  July  set  out  to  obey  the  new  sum- 
mons. In  his  company  were  his  servant  and  several 
Hurons  who  had  come  to  trade  with  the  Ottawas. 

They   proceeded  along   the  narrow  trail  which   ran 
from  Keweenaw  Bay  to  Lake  Vieux  Desert,  the   head- 


55 

waters  of  the  Wisconsin  River,  but  the  feeble  mission- 
ary's gait  was  too  slow  for  the  Indians,  who,  after  the 
manner  of  their  kind,  promptly  deserted  their  white 
friends,  leaving  them  to  follow  and  obtain  food  as  best 
they  might.  At  the  lake  the  Frenchmen  embarked  in 
a  canoe  upon  the  south-flowing  Wisconsin,  and  paddled 
down  as  far  as  Bill  Cross  Rapids,  some  five  or  six  miles 
above  the  mouth  of  Copper  River,  and  not  far  from 
where  is  now  the  city  of  Merrill.  From  the  foot  of 
these  rapids,  they  had  intended  leaving  their  canoe,  and 
following  a  trail  which  led  off  westward  through  the 
woods  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Black,  near  the  present 
town  of  Chelsea.  Menard's  servant  took  the  canoe 
through  the  rapids,  while  the  missionary,  as  usual,  to 
lighten  the  boat,  walked  along  the  portage  trail.  He 
must  have  lost  his  way  and  perished  of  exposure  in 
the  depths  of  the  dark  and  tangled  forest,  for  his 
servant  could  not  find  any  trace  of  him.  Thus  closed 
the  career  of  Wisconsin's  pioneer  missionary,  who  died 
in  the  pursuit  of  duty,  as  might  a  soldier  upon  the  field 
of  battle. 

The  death  of  Menard  left  the  Lake  Superior  coun- 
try without  a  missionary;  but  four  years  later  (1665), 
another  Jesuit  was  sent  thither  in  the  person  of  Claude 
Allouez  (pr.  Al-loo-ay'\  who  chose  Chequamegon  Bay 
for  the  seat  of  his  labors.  There  he  found  a  squalid 
village,  near  Radisson  and  Groseilliers'  old  forts,  on  the 
southwest  shore ;  it  was  composed  of  remnants  of  eight 
or  ten  tribes,  some  of  whom  had  been  driven  westward 
by  the  Iroquois  and  others  eastward  by  the  Sioux.  He 
called  his  mission  La  Pointe,  from  the  neighboring 


long  point  of  land  which,  projecting  northward,  divides 
Chequamegon  Bay  from  Lake  Superior. 

Allouez  could  make  little  impression  upon  these 
poor  savages.  After  four  years  of  hard  service  and 
ill-treatment,  he  was  relieved  by  Jacques  Marquette, 
a  youthful  and  enthusiastic  priest.  Late  in  the  autumn 
of  1669,  Allouez  went  to  Fox  River,  and  there  he 
founded  the  mission  of  St.  Francis  Xavier,  overlooking 

the  rapids  of  De  Pere.1 
This  was  a  more  success- 
ful mission  than  the  one 
at  Chequamegon  Bay ; 
for,  during  the  next  sum- 
mer, the  western 
Sioux  furiously  at- 
tacked the  Indian 
neighbors  of  Mar- 
quette and  sent  them  all 
flying  eastward,  like  dry 
leaves  before  an  October  gale.  The  zealous  Marquette 
accompanied  them,  and,  with  such  bands  as  he  could 
induce  to  settle  around  him,  opened  a  new  mission 
on  the  mainland  near  Mackinac  Island,  at  the  Point 
St.  Ignace  of  to-day. 

Meanwhile,  Allouez  continued  his  mission  at  De  Pere, 
making  long  trips  throughout  Wisconsin,  preaching  to 
the  Indians,  and  establishing  the  mission  of  St.  Mark 
on  the  Wolf  River,  probably  on  or  near  Lake  Shawano, 

1  Called  by  the  early  French  Rapides  des  Peres,  or  "  The  Fathers' 
Rapids  "  ;  but  it  was  soon  shortened  into  Des  Peres,  and  finally,  by  the 
Americans,  into  De  Pere. 


SITE  OF  THE   MISSION    AT   DE    PKRE 


57 

where  the  Chippewas  then  lived  in  great  numbers. 
Later,  he  opened  St.  James  mission  at  the  Mascoutin 
village  near  Berlin.  His  churches  were  mere  huts  or 
wigwams  built  of  reeds  and  bark,  after  the  manner  of 
the  natives.  Another  Jesuit,  Louis  Andre,  was  sent 
to  Wisconsin  to  assist  this  enterprising  missionary,  and 
they  traveled  among  the  tribes,  preaching  and  healing 
the  sick  in  nearly  every  Indian  village  in  the  wide 
country  between  Lake  Michigan  and  the  Mississippi. 
The  career  of  these  good  missionaries  was  not  one  of 
ease.  Their  lives  were  frequently  in  peril ;  they  suf- 
fered severely  from  cruel  treatment,  hunger,  cold,  and 
the  many  hardships  of  forest  travel ;  and  were  re- 
warded by  few  conversions. 

Allouez  remained  in  Wisconsin  until  1676,  when  he 
departed  to  carry  on  a  similar  work  in  Illinois,  dying 
thirteen  years  later,  after  a  score  of  years  spent  in 
Western  missions.  In  Wisconsin,  he  was  succeeded, 
in  turn,  by  several  others  of  his  order;  chief  among 
them  were  Fathers  Silvy,  Albanel,  Nouvel,  Enjalran, 
and  Chardon.  Chardon  was  the  last  of  his  kind,  for 
he,  with  other  Frenchmen,  was  driven  out  of  Wiscon- 
sin in  1728,  at  the  time  of  the  Fox  War. 

It  was  during  the  time  of  Enjalran,  at  De  Pere,  that 
Nicolas  Perrot,  a  famous  fur  trader,  was  military  com- 
mandant for  the  French  in  the  country  west  of  Lake 
Michigan.  In  all  this  vast  district,  Enjalran  was  then 
the  only  priest.  In  token  of  his  appreciation  of  its 
work,  Perrot  presented  to  the  mission  a  beautiful  silver 
ostensoriiim  (or  soleil}  made  in  Paris.  The  ostensorium 
is  one  of  the  vessels  used  at  the  altar,  in  celebrating  the 


mass.  This  was  in  the  year  1686;  the  following  year, 
during  one  of  the  frequent  outbursts  of  Indian  hostility 
against  the  missionaries,  Enjalran  was  obliged  to  fly  for 
his  life.  In  order  to  lighten  his  burden,  he  buried  this 
silver  vessel,  evidently  intending  to  return 
some  time  and  regain  possession  of  it. 

In  1802,  a  hundred  and  fifteen  years 
later,  a  man  was  digging  a  cellar  in  Green 
Bay,  several  miles  lower  down  the  bank 
of  the  Fox  River  than  is  De  Pere,  when 
his  pickax  ran  through  this  piece  of  sil- 
ver. It  was  brought  to  light,  and  for  safe 
keeping  was  given  to  the  Catholic  priest 
then  at  Green  Bay.  Nobody  would  have 
known  its  story  except  for  the  clearly 
engraved  inscription  on  the  bottom  ;  the 
words  are  in  French,  but  in  English  they 
signify:  "This  soleil  was  given  by  Mr. 
Nicolas  Perrot  to  the  mission  of  St.  Fran- 
cis Xavier,  at  the  Bay  of  the  Puants,  1686";  for  the 
early  French  name  for  Green  Bay  was  "  Bay  of  the 
Puants."  The  old  ostensorimn,  with  its  inscription  just 
as  plainly  to  be  read  to-day  as  when  engraved  over 
two  centuries  ago,  can  now  be  seen  among  the  treas- 
ures of  the  State  Historical  Society,  at  Madison.  It 
is  an  enduring  memorial  to  the  labors  and  the  suffer- 
ings of  Wisconsin's  first  missionaries. 


SOME  NOTABLE  VISITORS  TO  EARLY  WIS- 
CONSIN 

IT  has  been  pointed  out  that  wandering  fur  traders 
were  in  Wisconsin  at  a  very  early  date.  We  have 
seen  that  Nicolet,  Radisson,  and  Groseilliers  made 
Wisconsin  known  to  the  world,  at  a  time  when  Massa- 
chusetts colony  was  still  young.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  when  Father  Menard  went  to  Lake  Superior,  in 
1660,  to  convert  the  Indians,  there  were  several  French 
fur  traders  with  him.  As  early  as  the  spring  of  1662, 
these  same  traders  had  gone  across  country  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Fox  River.  Three  years  later  the 
Menominees  and  Pottawattomies,  then  living  on  both 
sides  of  the  bay,  were  visited  by  Nicolas  Perrot,  a 
daring  young  spirit  from  Quebec,  who  had  come  to 
the  then  Far  West  to  make  his  fortune  in  trading  with 
the  red  men. 

Perrot  was  one  of  the  most  picturesque  characters 
in  Wisconsin  history.  In  Canada  he  had  been  a 
servant  of  the  Jesuit  missionaries,  acquiring  in  this 
work  an  education  which  was  slight  as  to  books,  but 
broad  as  to  knowledge  of  the  Indians  and  of  forest  life. 
He  was  now  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and  started  out 
for  himself  as  soon  as  he  was  his  own  master.  For 
five  years  Perrot  wandered  up  and  down  the  eastern 
59 


6o 

half  of  Wisconsin,  frequently  visiting  his  friends,  the 
Mascoutins  and  Miamis,  on  the  Fox  River.  He  smoked 
pipes  of  peace  with  them  and  with  other  forest  and 
prairie  tribes,  and  joined  in  their  feasts  of  beaver, 
dog,  and  other  savage  delicacies. 

In  1670  he  and  four  other  Frenchmen,  packing  their 
furs  into  bundles  of  convenient  size,  joined  a  large 
party  of  Indians  going  down  to  Montreal  in  canoes, 
to  trade.  Perrot  did  not  return  with  his  companions, 
but  visited  Quebec,  and  there  received  an  appointment 
from  the  government  to  rally  the  Western  tribes  in  a 
great  council  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  Here  a  treaty 
was  to  be  made,  binding  the  savages  to  an  alliance 
with  France.  The  French  were  very  jealous  of  the 
English,  who  had,  through  the  guidance  of  Radisson 
and  Groseilliers,  commenced  fur  trade  operations  in  the 
Hudson  Bay  country.  It  was  feared  that  they  would 
entice  the  Indians  of  the  upper  Great  Lakes  to  trade 
with  them,  for  the  English  offered  higher  prices  for 
furs  than  did  the  French. 

Perrot  spent  the  winter  in  visiting  the  tribes  in  Wis- 
consin and  along  the  northern  shores  of  Lakes  Michigan 
and  Huron,  and  succeeded  in  inducing  large  bands  of 
them  to  go  to  the  Sault  early  in  May  (1671).  The 
council  was  attended  by  an  enormous  gathering,  repre- 
senting tribes  from  all  over  the  Northwest,  even  from 
the  north  shores  of  Lake  Superior  and  Hudson  Bay. 
Father  Marquette  was  there  with  the  Ottawas,  and 
several  other  famous  missionaries  came  to  the  council. 
The  interpreter,  who  knew  Indian  dialects  by  the  score, 
was  no  less  a  person  than  Louis  Joliet.  The  French 


6i 

government  was  represented  by  Saint  Lusson,  who  con- 
cluded the  desired  treaty,  with  great  ceremony  took 
formal  possession  of  all  this  country  f<^-  the  king  of 
France,  and  reared  on  the  spot  a  great  cedar  pole,  to 
which  he  fastened  a  lead  plate  bearing  the  arms  of 
his  country.  This  symbol  the  simple  and  wondering 
savages  could  not  understand :  and  as  soon  as  the 
Frenchmen  had  gone  home  again,  they  tore  it  down, 
fearing  that  it  was  a  charm  which  might  bring  bad 
luck  to  the  tribesmen. 

And  now  we  find  Perrot  suddenly  losing  his  office, 
and  forced  for  ten  years  to  live  a  quiet  life  in  the 
French  settlements  on  the  lower  St.  Lawrence.  He 
married  a  well-to-do  young  woman,  reared  a  consider- 
able family,  and  became  a  man  of  some  influence.  But 
he  was  always  eager  to  be  back  in  the  forest,  wander- 
ing from  tribe  to  tribe,  and  engaging  in  the  wilderness 
trade,  where  the  profits  were  great,  though  the  risks  to 
life  and  property  were  many.  In  1681  he  returned  to 
the  woods,  but  not  till  three  years  later  was  he  so  far 
west  as  Mackinac. 

In  1685  he  appeared  once  more  at  Green  Bay,  this 
time  holding  the  position  of  Commandant  of  the  West, 
with  a  little  company  of  twenty  soldiers.  He  now  had 
almost  unlimited  authority  to  explore  and  traffic  as  he 
would,  for  the  only  salary  an  official  of  that  sort  used  to 
get,  in  New  France,  was  the  right  to  trade  with  the 
Indians.  He  had  already  lost  money  in  working  for 
the  government  as  an  Indian  agent,  and  his  present 
operations  were  wholly  directed  toward  getting  it  back 
again.  He  went  up  the  Fox  and  down  the  Wisconsin, 


62 

and  then  ascended  the  Mississippi  to  trade  with  the 
wild  Sioux  tribe.  For  headquarters,  he  erected  a  little 
log  stockade  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  about 
a  mile  above  the  present  village  of  Trempealeau,  and 
south  of  the  mouth  of  Black  River.  In  the  year  1888, 
the  site  of  this  old  stockade  was  discovered  by  a  party 
of  historical  students,  and  many  of  the  curious  relics 
found  there  can  now  be  seen  in  the  museum  of  the  State 
Historical  Society,  at  Madison. 

All  through  the  winter  of  1685-86,  Perrot  traded 
here  with  the  Sioux.  He  had  a  most  captivating 
manner  of  treating  Indians ;  for  a  long  time,  few  of 
them  ventured  to  deny  any  request  made  by  him. 
Chiefs  from  far  and  near  would  come  to  the  Trempea- 
leau "  fort,"  as  it  was  called,  and  hold  long  councils 
and  feasts  with  the  great  white  chief,  and  more  than 
once  he  was  subjected  to  the  curious  Sioux  ceremony 
of  being  wept  over.  A  chief  would  stand  over  his 
guest  and  weep  copiously,  his  tears  falling  upon  the 
guest's  head;  when  the  chief's  tear  ducts  were  ex- 
hausted, he  would  be  relieved  by  some  headman  of  the 
tribe,  who  in  turn  was  succeeded  by  another,  and  so 
on  until  the  guest  was  well  drenched.  This  must  have 
been  a  very  trying  experience  to  Perrot,  but  he  was 
shrewd  enough  to  pretend  to  be  much  pleased  by  it. 

In  the  spring  of  1686,  the  same  year  in  which  he 
gave  the  silver  ostensorium  to  the  Jesuit  chapel  at 
De  Pere,  the  commandant  proceeded  up  the  Mississippi 
to  the  broadening  which  was,  about  this  time,  named 
Lake  Pepin  by  the  French.  On  the  Wisconsin  shore, 
not  far  above  the  present  village  of  Pepin,  he  erected 


63 

another  and  stronger  stockade,  Fort  St.  Antoine.  It 
was  here,  three  years  later,  that,  after  the  manner  of 
Saint  Lusson  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  he  formally  took  pos- 
session, in  the  name  of  his  king,  of  all  the  Upper 
Mississippi  valley. 

Several  other  forts  were  built  by  Perrot  along  the 
Mississippi,  none  of  them  more  than  groups  of  stout 
log  houses.  These  were  surrounded  by  a  stockade  wall 
of  heavy  logs  well  planted  in  the  ground,  sharpened  at 
the  top,  pierced  for  musket  fire,  and  sometimes  sur- 
mounted by  a  small  cannon.  The  stockade  whose  ruins 
were  unearthed  at  Trempealeau,  measured  about  forty- 
five  by  sixty  feet.  One  of  his  stockades,  Fort  Perrot, 
was  on  the  Minnesota  shore  of  Lake  Pepin ;  still 
another,  Fort  St.  Nicholas,  was  near  the  "  lower  town" 
of  the  Prairie  du  Chien  of  to-day,  at  the  confluence  of 
the  Wisconsin  and  the  Mississippi ;  and  it  also  appears 
that  he  had  a  stockade  lower  down  the  Mississippi,  to 
guard  a  lead  mine  which  he  had  discovered  near  Galena, 
because  lead  was  an  important  article  for  both  fur 
traders  and  Indians.  Sometimes  traders  fought  among 
themselves,  for  the  possession  of  a  lead  mine. 

Perrot  made  frequent  voyages  to  the  settlements  on 
the  St.  Lawrence  River,  and  engaged  in  some  of  the 
French  expeditions  against  the  hostile  Iroquois  of  New 
York%  While,  on  the  whole,  he  was  successful  in  hold- 
ing the  Western  tribes  in  friendship  to  New  France,  his 
position  was  not  without  grave  perils.  One  time  his  old 
friends,  the  Mascoutins,  rose  against  him,  claiming  that 
he  had  killed  one  of  their  warriors.  The  claim  may 
have  been  true,  for  he  was  a  man  of  violent  temper,  and 


64 

ruled  the  Wisconsin  forests  after  the  despotic  fashion 
of  an  Asiatic  prince.  The  Mascoutins  captured  Perrot, 
in  company  with  a  Pottawattomie  chief,  and  carrying 
them  to  their  village,  robbed  the  commandant  of  all  his 
furs,  and  decided  to  burn  the  prisoners  at  the  stake. 
But  while  being  conducted  to  the  fire,  the  two  managed 
by  artifice  to  escape,  and  at  last  reached  in  safety  their 
friends  at  the  mouth  of  the  Fox  River.  Another  time, 
the  Miamis  captured  Perrot,  and  would  have  burned 
him  except  for  the  interference  of  the  Fox  Indians, 
with  whom  he  was  friendly. 

In  1699,  owing  to  the  uprising  of  the  Foxes,  the  king 
ordered  that  all  the  Western  posts  be  abandoned,  and 
their  little  garrisons  removed  to  Montreal  and  Quebec. 
Thus  suddenly  ended  the  career  of  Perrot,  who  returned 
a  poor  man,  for  his  recent  losses  in  furs  had  been  heavy, 
and  his  expenses  of  keeping  up  the  posts  large.  Again 
and  again  he  sought  redress  from  the  government,  and 
the  Wisconsin  Foxes  earnestly  pleaded  that  he  be  sent 
back  to  them,  as  "  the  best  beloved  of  all  the  French 
who  have  ever  been  among  us."  But  his  star  had  set, 
he  no  longer  had  influence  ;  and  it  had  just  been  decided 
to  punish  his  friends  the  Foxes.  Perrot  lived  about 
twenty  years  longer,  on  the  banks  of  the  Lower  St. 
Lawrence,  and  died  in  old  age,  like  Joliet,  in  neglect 
and  poverty. 

During  much  of  the  time  that  Perrot  was  comman- 
dant of  the  West,  several  other  great  fur  traders  were 
conducting  operations  in  Wisconsin.  The  greatest  of 
these  was  the  Chevalier  La  Salle,  the  famous  explorer, 
who  plays  a  large  part  on  the  stage  of  Western  history, 


65 

particularly  in  the  history  of  the  Mississippi  valley.  It 
has  been  claimed  for  La  Salle  that  he  was  in  Wisconsin 
in  1671,  two  years  before  Joliet,  and  actually  canoed  on 
the  Mississippi  River,  but  this  is  more  than  doubtful. 
We  do  know  that  in  1673  one  of  his  agents  was  trading 
with  the  Sioux  to  the  west  of  Lake  Superior ;  and  that 


in  1679  he  came  to  Green  Bay  in  a  small  vessel  called 
the  Griffin,  the  first  sailing  craft  on  the  Great  Lakes 
above  the  cataract  of  Niagara.  La  Salle  was  a  conreur 
de  bois,  most  of  this  time,  for  he  operated  in  a  field  far 
larger  than  that  for  which  he  had  a  license.  Leaving 
his  ship,  which  was  afterward  wrecked,  he  and  fourteen 
of  his  men  proceeded  in  canoes  southward  along  the 
western  coast  of  Lake  Michigan,  visiting  the  sites  of 

ST<>.   OF   BADGER   STA. —  5 


66 

Milwaukee  and  other  Wisconsin  lakeshore  cities. 
Finally,  after  many  strange  adventures,  they  ascended 
St.  Joseph  River,  crossed  over  to  the  Kankakee 
River,  and  spent  the  winter  in  a  log  fort  which  they 
built  on  Peoria  Lake,  a  broadening  of  the  Illinois  River. 

At  least  one  priest  was  thought  necessary  in  every 
well-equipped  exploring  expedition.  La  Salle  had  quar- 
reled with  the  Jesuits,  and  hated  them  ;  hence  the 
ministers  of  religion  in  his  party  were  three  Franciscan 
friars,  one  of  them  being  Father  Louis  Hennepin, 
who  afterward  became  famous.  When  La  Salle  deter- 
mined to  spend  the  winter  at  Peoria  Lake,  he  sent 
Hennepin  forward  with  two  conreurs  de  bois,  to  explore 
the  upper  waters  of  the  Mississippi.  These  three  ad- 
venturers descended  the  Illinois  River  in  their  canoe, 
and  then  ascended  the  Mississippi  to  the  Falls  of 
St.  Anthony,  where  now  lies  the  great  city  of  Min- 
neapolis ;  there  they  met  some  Sioux,  and  went  with 
them  upon  a  buffalo  hunt.  But  the  Indians,  although 
at  first  friendly,,  soon  turned  out  to  be  a  bad  lot,  for 
they  robbed  their  guests,  and  practically  held  them*  as 
prisoners. 

This  was  in  the  early  summer  of  1680.  '  Luckily  for 
Hennepin  and  his  companions,  the  powerful  coitrcnr  dc 
bois,  Daniel  Graysolon  Duluth  (du  Lnth)  appeared  on 
the  scene.  Duluth  was,  next  to  Perrot,  the  leading  man 
in  the  country  around  Lake  Superior  and  the  Upper 
Mississippi  valley.  He  had  been  spending  the  winter 
trading  with  the  Sioux  in  the  lake  country  of  northern 
Minnesota,  and  along  Pigeon  River,  which  is  now  the 
dividing  line  between  Minnesota  and  Canada.  With  a 


67 

party  of  ten  of  his  boatmen,  he  set  out  in  June  to  reach 
the  Mississippi,  his  route  taking  him  up  the  turbulent 
little  Bois  Brule  River,  over  the  mile  and  a  half  of 
portage  trail  to  Upper  Lake  St.  Croix,  and  down 
St.  Croix  River  to  the  Mississippi.  On  reaching  the 
latter,  he  learned  of  the  fact  that  Europeans  were  being 
detained  and  maltreated  by  the  Sioux,  and  at  once  went 
and  rescued  them.  The  summer  was  spent  among  the 
Indians  in  company  with  Hennepin's  party,  who,  now 
that  Duluth  was  found  to  be  their  friend,  were  hand- 
somely treated.  In  the  autumn,  Duluth,  Hennepin,  and 
their  companions  all  returned  down  the  Mississippi,  up 
the  Wisconsin,  and  down  the  Fox,  and  spent  the  winter 
at  Mackinac.  After  that,  Duluth  was  frequently  upon 
the  Fox-Wisconsin  route,  and  traded  for  buffalo  hides 
and  other  furs  with  the  Wisconsin  tribes. 

Another  famous  visitor  to  Wisconsin,  in  those  early 
days,  was  Pierre  le  Sueur,  who  in  1683  traveled  from 
Lake  Michigan  to  the  Mississippi,  over  the  Fox-Wis- 
consin route,  and  traded  with  the  Sioux  at  the  Falls  of 
St.  Anthony  and  beyond.  His  fur  trade  grew,  in  a  few 
years,  to  large  proportions ;  for  he  was  a  shrewd  man, 
and  was  related  to  some  of  the  officials  of  New  France. 
This  enabled  him  to  secure  trading  licenses  for  the 
Western  country,  and  other  valuable  privileges,  which 
gave  hjm  an  advantage  over  the  unlicensed  traders,  like 
Duluth,  who  had  no  official  friends.  In  1693,  Le  Sueur 
was  trading  in  Duluth's  old  country ;  and,  in  order  to 
protect  the  old  Bois  Brule"  and  St.  Croix  route  from 
marauding  Indians,  he  built  a  log  fort  at  either  end, 
one  on  Chequamegon  Bay,  and  the  other  on  an  island 


68 


in  the  Mississippi,  below  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Croix. 
A  few  years  later,  Le  Sueur  was  in  France,  where  he 
obtained  a  ,  license  to  operate  certain  "mines  of  lead, 
copper,  and  blue  and  green  earth,"  which  he  claimed 
to  have  discovered  along  the  banks 
of  the  Upper  Mississippi.  In 
the  summer  of 
1700,  he  and  his 
party  opened 
lead  mines  in  the 
neighborhood  of 
the  present  Du- 
buque  and  Gale- 
na, and  also  near 
the  modern  town 
of  Potosi,  Wiscon- 
sin. He  does  not 
appear  to  have 
been  very  success- 
ful as  a  miner  ;  but 
his  fur  trade  was 
still  enormous,  and 
his  many  explora- 
tions led  to  the  Up- 
per Mississippi  being 
quite  correctly  represented 
on  the  maps  of  America,  made 
by  the  European  geographers. 
A  missionary  priest,  Father  St.  Cosme,  of  Quebec, 
was  in  Green  Bay  in  October,  1699,  and  proposed  to 
visit  the  Mississippi  region,  by  way  of  the  Fox  and 


69 

Wisconsin  rivers.  But  the  warlike  Foxes,  who  were 
giving  the  French  a  great  deal  of  trouble  at  this  time, 
had  forbidden  any  white  man  passing  over  this  favorite 
waterway,  so  St.  Cosme  was  obliged  to  go  the. way  that 
La  Salle  had  followed,  up  the  west  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan  and  through  Illinois.  The  party  stopped  at 
many  places  along  the  Wisconsin  lake  shore,  but  the 
only  ones  which  we  can  identify  are  the  sites  of  She- 
boygan  and  Milwaukee,  where  there  were  large  Indian 
villages. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  these  were  all  the 
Frenchmen  to  tarry  in  or  pass  through  Wisconsin 
during  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
Doubtless  there  were  scores,  if  not  hundreds  of  others, 
fur  traders,  voyagcnrs,  soldiers,  and  priests ;  we  have 
selected  but  a  few  of  those  whose  movements  were 
recorded  in  the  writings  of  their  time.  Wisconsin  was 
a  key  point  in  the  geography  of  the  West ;  here  were 
the  interlaced  sources  of  rivers  flowing  north  into  Lake 
Superior,  east  and  northeast  into  Lake  Michigan,  and 
west  and  southwest  into  the  Mississippi  River.  The 
canoe  traveler  from  Lower  Canada  could,  with  short 
portages,  pass  through  Wisconsin  into  waters  reaching 
far  into  the  interior  of  the  continent,  even  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  the  lakes  of  the  Canadian  Northwest,  and 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  This  is  why  the  geography  of 
Wisconsin  became  known  so  early  in  the  history  of  our 
country,  why  Wisconsin  Indians  played  so  important  a 
part  on  the  stage  of  border  warfare,  and  why  history  was 
being  made  here  at  a  time  when  some  of  the  States  to 
the  east  of  us  were  still  almost  unknown  to  white  men. 


A  QUARTER  OF  A  CENTURY  OF  WARFARE 

WISCONSIN  was  important,  from  a  geographical 
point  of  view,  because  here  were  the  meeting 
places  of  waters  which  flowed  in  so  many  directions ; 
here  were  the  gates  which  opened  upon  widely  diver- 
gent paths.  The  explorer  and  the  fur  trader  soon 
discovered  this,  and  Wisconsin  became  known  to  them 
at  a  very  early  period.  France  had  two  important 
colonies  in  North  America,  New  France  (or  Canada), 
upon  the  St.  Lawrence  River,  and  Louisiana,  extend- 
ing northward  indefinitely  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
It  was  found  necessary,  in  pushing  her  claim  to  the 
ownership  of  all  of  the  continent  west  of  the  Alleghany 
Mountains  and  east  of  the  Rockies,  to  connect  New 
France  and  Louisiana  with  a  chain  of  little  forts  along 
the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi  River.  The  forts 
at  Detroit,  Mackinac,  Green  Bay,  Prairie  du  Chien, 
and  Kaskaskia  (in  Illinois)  were  links  in  this  chain,  at 
the  center  of  which  was  Wisconsin ;  or,  to  use  another 
figure,  Wisconsin  was  the  keystone  of  the  arch  which 
bridged  the  two  French  colonies. 

There  were  six  principal  canoe  routes  between  the 
Great  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi:  one  by  way  of  the 
Maumee   and  Wabash   rivers,  another   by  way  of   St. 
70 


Joseph  River  and  the  Kankakee  and  the  Illinois,  an- 
other by  way  of  the  St.  Joseph,  Wabash,  and  Ohio, 
rivers,  still  another  by  way  of  the  Chicago  River  and 
the  Illinois,  and  we  have  already  seen  that  from  Lake 
Superior  there  were  used  the  Bois  Brul6  and  the  St. 
Croix  routes.  But  the  easiest  of  all,  the  favorite  gate- 
way, was  the  Fox-Wisconsin  route,  for  all  the  others 
involved  considerable  hardship;  this  is  why  Wisconsin 
was  so  necessary  to  the  French  military  officers  in 
holding  control  of  the  interior  of  the  continent. 

Affairs  went  well  enough  so  long  as  the  French  were 
on  good  terms  with  the  warlike  and  crafty  Fox  Indians, 
who  held  control  of  the  Fox  River.  But  after  a  time 
the  Foxes  became  uneasy.  The  fur  trade  in  New 
France  was  in  the  hands  of  a  monopoly,  which  charged 
large  fees  for  licenses,  and  fixed  its  own  prices  on  the 
furs  which  it  bought,  and  on  the  Indian  goods  which  it 
sold  to  the  forest  traders.  On  the:  other  hand,  the  fur 
trade  in  the  English  colonies  east  of  the  Alleghanies 
was  free ;  any  man  could  engage  in  it  and  go  wherever 
he  would.  The  result  was  that  the  English,  with  the 
strong  competition  among  themselves,  paid  higher 
prices  to  the  Indians  for  furs  than  the  French  could 
afford,  and  their  prices  for  articles  which  the  Indians 
wanted  were  correspondingly  lower  than  those  of  the 
French. 

The  Indians  were  always  eager  for  a  bargain;  and 
although  the  French  declared  that  those  trading  with 
the  English  were  enemies  of  New  France,  they  per- 
sisted in  secretly  sending  trading  parties  to  the  Eng- 
lish, who  were  now  beginning  to  swarm  into  the  Ohio 


valley.  The  Foxes,  in  particular,  grew  very  angry  with 
.  the  French  for  charging  them  such  high  prices,  and 
resented  the  treatment  which  they  received  at  the  hands 
of  the  traders  from  Quebec  and  Montreal.  At  one  time 
they  told  Perrot  that  they  would  pack  up  their  wig- 
wams, and  move  in  a  body  to  the  Wabash  River  or  to 
the  Ohio,  and  form  a  league  with  the  fierce  Iroquois 
of  New  York,  who  were  friends  and  neighbors  of  the 
.  English.  Had  they  done  so,  the  French 
fur  trade  in  the  West  would  have 
suffered  greatly. 

The    Foxes   began   to 
make  it  disagreeable 
for  the  French  in 
^    Wisconsin.    They 
_ .     insisted  on  collect- 
ing tolls  on  fur  trade 
bateaux  which  were  be- 
/     mg  propelled  up  the  Fox 
River,    and  even   stopped 
traders  entirely  ;   several 
murders  of    Frenchmen 
were    also    charged    to 
them.    The  French  there- 
upon    determined    to     punish 
these  rebellious  savages  who  sat 
within  the  chief   gateway  to  the 
Mississippi.       In     the    winter     of 

1706-07,  /"  a  large  party  of  soldiers,  cottrenrs  des  bois, 
and  half-breeds,  under  a  captain  named  Marin,  ascended 
the  Fox  River  on  snowshoes  and  attacked  the  Foxes, 


73 

together  with  their  allies,  the  Sacs,  at  a  large  village 
at  Winnebago  Rapids,  near  where  is  now  the  city  of 
Neenah. 

Several  hundreds  of  the  savages  were  killed  in  this 
assault,  but  its  effect  was  to  make  the  Foxes  the  more 
troublesome.  A  few  summers  later,  this  same  Marin 
arranged  again  to  surprise  the  enemy.  His  boats  were 
covered  with  oilcloth  blankets,  in  the  manner  adopted 
by  the  traders  to  protect  the  goods  against  rain ;  only 
two  voyageurs  were  visible  in  each  boat  to  propel  it. 
Arriving  at  the  foot  of  Winnebago  Rapids,  the  canoes 
were  ranged  along  the  shore,  and  nearly  fifteen  hundred 
Indians  came  out  and  squatted  on  the  bank,  ready  to 
collect  toll  of  the  traders.  All  of  a  sudden  the  covers 
were  thrown  off,  and  the  armed  men  appeared  and 
raked  the  Indians  with  quick  volleys  of  lead,  while  a 
small  cannon  in  Marin's  boat  increased  the  effectiveness 
of  the  attack.  Tradition  says  that  over  a  thousand 
Foxes  and  Sacs  fell  in  this  massacre ;  this  is  one  of  the 
many  incidents  in  white  men's  relations  with  the  Indi- 
ans, wherein  savages  were  outsavaged  in  the  practice 
of  ferocious  treachery. 

Despite  the  great  slaughter,  there  appear  to  have 
been  enough  Foxes  left  to  continue  giving  the  French 
a  great  deal  of  annoyance.  There  were  fears  at  Que- 
bec that  it  might  be^necessary  to  abandon  the  attempt 
to  connect  New  France  and  Louisiana  by  a  trail 
through  the  Western  woods,  in  which  case  the  Eng- 
lish would  have  a  free  run  of  the  Mississippi  valley. 
There  seem,  however,  not  to  have  been  any  more  war- 
like expeditions  to  Wisconsin  for  several  years.  But 


74 

in  May,  1712,  the  French  induced  large  numbers  of  the 
Foxes,  with  their  friends,  the  Mascoutins,  the  Kicka- 
poos,  and  the  Sacs,  to  come  to  Detroit  for  the  making 
of  a  treaty  of  peace.  At  the  same  time  the  French 
also  assembled  there  large  bands  of  the  Pottawattomies 
and  Menominees  from  Wisconsin,  with  Illinois  Indians, 
some  camps  from  Missouri,  and  Hurons  and  Ottawas 
from  the  Lake  Huron  country;  all  of  these  were  ene- 
mies of  the  Foxes. 

The  records  do  not  show  just  why  it  happened  ;  but 
for  some  reason  the  French  and  their  allies  fired  on  the 
Foxes  and  their  friends,  who  were  well  intrenched  in  a 
palisaded  camp  outside  the  walls  of  Detroit.  A  great 
siege  ensued,  lasting  nineteen  days,  in  which  the 
slaughter  on  both  sides  was  heavy;  but  at  last  the 
Foxes,  worn  out  by  loss  of  numbers,  hunger,  and  dis- 
ease, took  advantage  of  a  dark,  rainy  night  to  escape 
northward.  They  were  pursued  the  following  day,  but 
again  intrenched  themselves  with  much  skill,  and  with- 
stood another  siege  of  five  days,  when  they  surren- 
dered. The  French  and  their  savage  allies  fell  upon 
the  poor  captives  with  fury  and  slew  nearly  all  of  them, 
men,  women,  and  children. 

The  poor  Foxes  had  lost  in  this  terrible  experience 
upward  of  fifteen  hundred  of  the  bravest  of  their  tribe, 
which  was  now  reduced  to  a  few  half-starved  bands. 
But  their  spirit  was  not  gone.  Next  year  the  officers 
at  Quebec  wrote  home  to  Paris :  "  The  Fox  Indians 
are  daily  becoming  more  insolent."  They  had  begun 
to  change  their  tactics;  instead, of  wasting  their  ener- 
gies on  the  French,  they  began  to  make  friends 


75 


with,  or  to  intimidate,  neighboring  tribes.  By  means 
of  small,  secret  war  parties,  they  would  noiselessly 
swarm  out  of  the  Wisconsin  forests  and  strike  hard 
blows  at  the  prairie  Indians  of  Illinois,  who  preferred 
to  remain  their  enemies.  In  this  manner  the  Illinois 
Indians  were  reduced  to  a  mere  handful,  and  were  com- 
pelled to  seek  shelter  under  the  guns  of  the  French 
fort  at  Kaskaskia.  At  the  same  time  the  Foxes  were 
in  close  alliance  with  the  Sioux  and  other  great 
western  tribes,'  who  helped  them  lock  the 
gate  of  the  Fox- Wisconsin  rivers,  and  plun- 
der and  murder  French  traders  wherever 
they  could  be  found  throughout  Wisconsin.  ( 

Again    it    seemed    evident    that 
New   France,   unless   something 
were    done,    could   never   maintain 
its  chain  of  communication  with  Lou- 
isiana, or  conduct  any  fur   trade    in 
the     Northwest.      The    something 
decided    on    was   an    attempt    to 
destroy    the    Foxes,    root    and     >\ 
branch.        For    this    purpose 
there  was  sent  out  to  Wis- 
consin,   in     1716,    a    well- 
equipped      expedition 
under,,  an    experienced 
captain     named    JDe 
Louvigny,      number- 
ing  eight    hundred 
men,  whites  and 
Indians.     The 


Foxes  were  found  living  in  a  walled  town  upon  the 
mound  now  known  as  Little  Butte  des  Morts,  on  the 
west  side  of  Fox  River,  opposite  the  present  Neenah. 
The  wall  consisted  of  three  rows  of  stout  palisades,  re- 
enforced  by  a  deep  ditch ;  tradition  says  there  were 
here  assembled  five  hundred  braves  and  three  thousand 
squaws  and  other  noncombatants. 

The  French  found  it  necessary  to  lay  siege  to  this 
forest  fortress,  just  as  they  would  attack  a  European 
city  of  that  time ;  trenches  and  mines  were  laid,  and 
pushed  forward  at  night,  until,  at  the  close  of  the 
third  day,  everything  was  ready  to  blow  up  the  pali- 
sades. At  this  point  the  Foxes  surrendered,  but  they 
gained  easy  terms  for  those  days,  for  De  Louvigny  was 
no  butcher  of  men,  and  appeared  to  appreciate  their 
bravery.  They  gave  up  their  prisoners,  they  furnished 
enough  slaves  to  the  allies  of  the  French  to  take  the 
place  of  the  warriors  slain,  they  agreed  to  furnish  furs 
enough  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  expedition,  and  sent 
six  hostages  to  Quebec  to  answer  for  their  future  be- 
havior. The  next  year,  De  Louvigny  returned  to  the 
valley  of  the  Fox,  from  Quebec,  and  made  a  treaty  with 
the  Foxes,  but  nothing  came  of  it.  Treaties  were  easily 
made  with  Indian  tribes,  in  the  days  of  New  France, 
and  as  easily  broken  by  either  side. 

In  the  very  next  year,  the  Foxes  were  again  making 
raids  on  the  French-loving  Illinois,  and  the  entire  West 
was,  as  usual,  torn  by  strife.  It  was  evident  that  the 
Foxes  were  trying  to  gain  control  of  the  Illinois  River, 
and  thus  command  both  of  the  principal  roads  to  the 
Mississippi.  The  French  were  at  this  time  enthusi- 


77 

astic  over  great  schemes  for  opening  mines  on  the 
Mississippi,  operating  northward  from  Louisiana;  agri- 
culture was  beginning  to  flourish  around  Kaskaskia ; 
and  grain,  flour,  and  furs  were  being  shipped  down  the 
Mississippi  to  the  French  islands  in  the  West  Indies, 
and  across  the  ocean  to  France.  More  than  ever  was 
it  necessary  to  unite  Louisiana  with  Canada  by  a  line 
of  communication. 

But  just  now  the  Foxes  were  stronger  than  they  had 
been  at  any  time.  Their  shrewd  warriors  had  organized 
a  great  confederacy  to  shut  out  the  French,  and  thereby 
advance  the  cause  of  English  trade,  although  it  is  not 
known  that  the  English  assisted  in  this  widespread 
conspiracy.  Fox  warriors  were  sent  with  pipes  of  peace 
among  the  most  distant  tribes  of  the  West,  the  South, 
and  the  North,  and  it  seemed  as  if  the  whole  interior  of 
the  continent  were  rising  in  arms.  A  French  writer  of 
the  period  says  of  the  Foxes :  "  Their  fury  increased  as 
their  forces  diminished.  On  every  side  they  raised  up 
new  enemies  against  us.  The  whole  course  and  neigh- 
borhood of  the  Mississippi  is  infested  with  Indians  with 
whom  we  have  no  quarrel,  and  who  yet  give  to  the 
French  no  quarter." 

This  condition  lasted  for  a  few  years.  But  Indian 
leagues  do  not  ordinarily  long  endure.  We  soon  find 
the  Foxes  weak  again,  with  few  to  back  them  ;  in  1726, 
at  a  council  in  Green  Bay,  they  were  apologizing  for 
having  made  so  much  trouble.  The  French  were,  how- 
ever, still  afraid  of  these  wily  folk,  and  two  years  later 
(1728)  a  little  army  of  four  hundred  Frenchmen  and  nine 
hundred  Indian  allies  advanced  on  the  Fox  villages  by 


78 

way  of  the  Ottawa  River  route  and  Mackinac.  The 
Foxes,  together  with  their  Winnebago  friends,  had  heard 
of  the  approach  of  the  whites,  and  fled  ;  but  the  white 
invaders  burned  every  deserted  village  in  the  valley, 
and  destroyed  all  the  crops,  leaving  the  red  men  to 
face  the  rigor  of  winter  with  neither  huts  nor  food. 

Fleeing  from  their  native  valley  before  the  onset  of 
the  army,  the  unhappy  fugitives,'  said  to  have  been 
four  thousand  in  number,  descended  the  Wisconsin  and 
ascended  the  Mississippi,  to  find  their  Sioux  allies  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Lake  Pepin.  But  the  Sioux  had 
been  won  by  French  presents,  distributed  from  the  fur 
trade  fort  on  that  lake,  and  turned  the  starving  tribes- 
men away ;  the  ever-treacherous  Winnebagoes  of  the 
party  sided  with  the  Sioux;  the  Sacs  expressed  repent- 
ance, and  hurried  home  to  Green  Bay  to  make  their 
peace  with  the  French  ;  the  Mascoutins  now  proved  to 
be  enemies.  Thus  deserted,  the  disconsolate  Foxes 
passed  the  winter  in  Iowa,  and  sent  messengers  to  the 
Green  Bay  fort,  begging  for  forgiveness. 

But  there  was  no  longer  any  peace  for  the  Foxes. 
Indians  friendly  with  the  French  attacked  one  of  their 
Iowa  camps ;  and  in  the  autumn  of  1729  they  sought  in 
humble  fashion  to  return  to  the  valley  of  the  Fox ;  but 
they  were  ambuscaded  by  a  French-directed  party  of 
Ottawas,  Menominees,  Chippewas,  and  Winnebagoes, 
and  after  a  fierce  fight  lost  nearly  three  hundred  by 
death  and  capture ;  the  prisoners,  men,  women,  and 
children,  were  burned  at  the  stake. 

Turning  southward,  the  greater  part  of  the  survivors 
of  this  ill-starred  tribe  sought  a  final  asylum  upon 


79 

the  Illinois  River,  not  far  from  Peoria.  Three  noted 
French  commanders,  heads  of  garrisons  in  the  Western 
country,  now  gathered  their  forces,  which  aggregated  a 
hundred  and  seventy  Frenchmen  and  eleven  hundred 
Indians;  and  in  August,  1730,  gave  battle  to  the  fugi- 
tives, who  were  now  outnumbered  full  four  to  one. 
The  contest,  notable  for  the  gallant  sorties  of  the  be- 
sieged and  the  cautious  military  engineering  of  the 
besiegers,  lasted  throughout  twenty-two  days;  probably 
never  in  the  history  of  the  West  has  there  been  wit- 
nessed more  heroic  conduct  than  was  displayed  during 
this  remarkable  campaign.  It  was  inevitable  that  the 
Foxes  should  lose  in  the  end,  but  they  sold  themselves 
dearly.  Not  over  fifty  or  sixty  escaped ;  and  it  is  said 
that  three  hundred  warriors  perished  in  battle  or  after- 
wards at  the  stake,  while  six  hundred  women  and  chil- 
dren were  either  tomahawked  or  burned. 

It  is  surprising,  after  all  these  massacres,  that  there 
were  any  members  of  the  tribe  left ;  yet  we  learn  that 
two  years  later  (1732)  three  hundred  of  them  were  liv- 
ing peaceably  on  the  banks  of  the  Wisconsin  River, 
when  still  another  French  and  Indian  band  swept  down 
upon  and  either  captured  or  slaughtered  them  all.  Of 
another  small  party,  which  sought  mercy  from  the  offi- 
cer of  the  fort  at  Green  Bay,  several,  including  the 
head  chief  of  the  Foxes,  Kiala,  were  sent  away  into 
slavery,  and  wore  away  their  lives  in  menial  drudgery 
upon  the  tropical  island  of  Martinique. 

The  remainder  took  refuge  with  the  Sacs,  on  Fox 
River ;  and  the  following  year  the  French  commander 
at  Green  Bay  asked  the  Sacs  to  give  them  up.  This 


8o 

time  the  Sacs  proved  to  be  good  friends,  and  refused  ; 
and  in  the  quarrel  which  followed  at  the  Sac  town, 
eight  French  soldiers  were  killed.  This  led  to  later 
retaliation  on  the  part  of  the  French,  but  in  the  battle 
which  was  fought  both  sides  lost  heavily ;  and  then 
both  Sacs  and  Foxes  fled  from  the  country,  never  to 
return.  They  settled  upon  the  banks  of  the  Des 
Moines  River,  in  Iowa,  whither  French  hate  again 
sought  them  out  in  1734.  This  last  expedition,  how- 
ever, was  a  failure,  and  the  Fox  War  was  finally  ended, 
after  twenty-five  years  of  almost  continuous  bloodshed. 
During  this  war  not  only  had  the  great  tribe  of  the 
Foxes  been  almost  annihilated,  but  the  power  of  France 
in  the  West  had  meanwhile  been  greatly  weakened  by 
the  persistent  opposition  of  those  who  had  held  the  key 
to  her  position. 


THE   COMMERCE   OF  THE   FOREST 

WE  have  seen  in  previous  chapters  why  Wisconsin, 
with  her  intermingling  rivers,  was  considered 
the  key  to  the  French  position  in  the  interior  of  North 
America;  why  it  was  that  fur  traders  early  sought  this 
State,  and  erected  log  forts  along  its  rivers  and  lakes  to 
protect  their  commerce  with  the  people  of  the  forest. 
It  remains  to  be  told  what  were  the  conditions  of  this 
vvidespreading  and  important  forest  trade. 

The  French  introduced  to  our  Indians  iron  pots  and 
kettles,  which  were  vastly  stronger  than  their  crude 
utensils  of  clay ;  iron  fishhooks,  hatchets,  spears,  and 
guns,  which  were  not  only  more  durable,  but  far  more 
effective  than  their  old  weapons  of  stone  and  copper 
and  bone;  cloths  and  blankets  of  many  colors,  from 
which  attractive  clothing  was  more  easily  made  than 
from  the  skins  of  beasts ;  and  glass  beads  and  silver 
trinkets,  for  the  decoration  of  their  clothing  and  bodies, 
which  cost  far  less  labor  to  obtain  than  did  ornaments 
made  from  clam  shells.  To  secure  these  French  goods, 
the  Indians  had  but  to  hunt  and  bring  the  skins  to 
the  white  men.  The  Indian  who  could  secure  a  gun 
found  it  easier  to  get  skins  than  before,  and  he  also  had 
a  weapon  which  made  him  more  powerful  against  his 

STO.   OF  BADGIiR   STA. — 6  8 1 


82 

enemies.  It  was  not  long  before  the  Indian  forgot  how 
to  make  utensils  and  weapons  for  himself,  and  became 
very  dependent  on  the  white  trader.  This  is  why  the 
fur  trade  was  at  the  bottom  of  every  event  in  the 
forest,  and  for  full  two  hundred  years  was  of  supreme 
importance  to  all  the  people  who  lived  in  the  Wisconsin 
woods. 

All  trade  in  New  France  was^  in  the  control  of  a 
monopoly,  which  charged  heavy  fees  for  licenses, 
severely  punished  all  the  unlicensed  traders  who  could 
be  detected,  and  fixed  its  own  prices  for  everything. 
French  traders  were  obliged,  therefore,  to  charge  the 
Indians  more  for  their  goods  than  the  English  charged 
for  theirs ;  and  it  was  a  continual  and  often  bloody 
struggle  to  keep  the  Indians  of  the  Northwest  from 
having  any  trade  with  the  English  colonists  from  the 
Atlantic  coast,  who  had  with  great  labor  crossed  the 
Alleghany  Mountains  and  were  now  swarming  into 
the  Ohio  River  valley.  It  was  impossible  to  prevent  the 
English  trade  altogether,  but  the  policy  was  in  the  main 
successful,  although  it  cost  the  French  a  deal  of  anxi- 
ety, and  sometimes  great  expense  in  military  operations. 

During  the  greater  part  of  the  French  regime  in  Wis- 
consin, the  bulk  of  the  goods  for  the  Indians  came  up 
by  the  Ottawa  River  route,  because  the  warlike  Iroquois 
of  New  York  favored  the  English,  and  for  a  long  time 
kept  Frenchmen  from  entering  the  lower  lakes  of  Onta- 
rio and  Erie.  Finally,  however,  after  the  fort  at  Detroit 
was  built  (1701),  the  lower  lakes  came  to  be  used. 

It  was,  by  either  route,  a  very  long  and  tiresome  jour- 
ney from  Quebec  or  Montreal  to  Wisconsin,  and  owing 


to  the  early  freezing  of  the  Straits  of  Mackinac,  but 
one  trip  could  be  made  in  a  year.  It  was  not,  however, 
necessary  for  every  trader  to  go  to  the  "lower  settle- 
ments "  each  year.  At  the  Western  forts  large  stocks 
of  goods  were  kept,  and  there  the  furs  were  stored, 
sometimes  for  several  seasons,  until  a  'j  great  fleet 


of    canoes    could    be    made    up    by    ,    ^  bands  of 


traders  and  friendly  Indians ;  and 
expedition  to    Montreal  was 
considerable  display  of  bar- 
baric splendor.  When  the 
traders  reached  Montre- 
al, the  inhab- 


then  the 


itants  of  the  settlement  turned  out  to  welcome  their 
visitors  from  the  wilderness,  and  something  akin  to  a 
great  fair  was  held,  at  which  speculators  bought  up  the 
furs,  feasts  were  eaten  and  drunk,  and  fresh  treaties 


84 

of  peace  were  made  with  the  Indians.  A  week  or  two 
would  thus  pass  in  universal  festivity,  at  the  end  of 
which  traders  and  savages  would  seek  their  canoes, 
and,  amid  volleys  of  cannon  from  the  fort,  martial 
music,  the  fluttering  of  flags,  and  the  shouts  of  the 
habitants,  the  fleet  would  push  off,  and  soon  be  swal- 
lowed again  by  the  all-pervading  forest. 

When  the  French  were  driven  out  of  Canada,  in 
1760,  and  the  British  assumed  control,  the  English 
Hudson  Bay  Company  began  spreading  its  operations 
over  the  Northwest.  But  in  1783,  at  the  close  of  the 
Revolutionary  War,  the  Northwest  Company  was  organ- 
ized, with  headquarters  at  Montreal.  The  British  still 
held  possession  of  our  Northwest  long  after  the  treaty 
with  the  United  States  was  signed.  Soon  sailing  ships 
were  introduced,  and  many  goods  were  thus  brought  to 
Mackinac,  Green  Bay,  and  Chequamegon  Bay  ;  never- 
theless, canoes  and  bateaux,  together  with  the  more 
modern  "  Mackinac  boats  "  and  "  Durham  boats,"  were 
for  many  years  largely  used  upon  these  long  Western 
journeys  from  Montreal.  To  a  still  later  date  were 
these  rude  craft  sent  out  from  the  Mackinac  ware- 
houses to  Wisconsin,  or  from  Mackinac  to  the  famous 
headquarters  of  the  company  at  the  mouth  of  Pigeon 
River,  on  the  western  shore  of  Lake  Superior,  the 
"Grand  Portage,"  as  it  was  called. 

It  was  a  life  filled  with  great  perils,  by  land  and 
flood ;  many  were  the  men  who  lost  their  lives  in 
storms,  in  shooting  river  rapids,  in  deadly  quarrels 
with  one  another  or  with  the  savages,  by  exposure  to 
the  elements,  or  by  actual  starvation.  Yet  there  was  a 


glamour  over  these  wild  experiences,  as  is  customary 
wherever  men  are  associated  as  comrades  in  an  outdoor 
enterprise  involving  common  dangers  and  hardships. 
The  excitement  and  freedom  of  the  fur  trade  appealed 
especially  to  the  volatile,  fun  loving  French  ;  and  music 
and  badinage  and  laughter  often  filled  the  day. 

After  the  Americans  assumed  control,  in  1816,  Con- 
gress forbade  the  British  to  conduct  the  fur  trade  in 
our  country.  This  was 
to  prevent  them  from 
influencing  the  Western 
Indians  to  war;  but 
turning  out  the  English 
traders  served  greatly 
to  help  the  American 
Fur  Company,  founded 
by  John  Jacob  Astor, 
and  having  its  head- 
quarters on  the  Island 
of  Mackinac.  Never- 
theless the  agents,  the 
clerks,  and  the  voyageiirs  were  still  nearly  all  of  them 
Frenchmen,  as  of  old,  and  there  was  really  very  little 
change  in  the  methods  of  doing  business,  except  that 
Astor  managed  to  reap  most  of  the  profits. 

The  h\r  trade  lasted,  as  a  business  of  prime  impor- 
tance to  Wisconsin,  until  about  1835.  It  was  at  its 
greatest  height  in  1820,  at  which  time  Green  Bay  was 
the  chief  settlement  in  Wisconsin.  By  1835  new  inter- 
ests had  arisen,  with  the  development  of  the  lead  mines 
in  the  southwest,  and  with  the  advent  of  agricultural 


JOHN  JACOB   ASTOR 


86 

settlers  from  the  East,  upon  the  close  of  the  Black 
Hawk  War  (1832). 

The  fur  trade  led  the  way  to  the  agricultural  and 
manufacturing  life  of  to-day.  The  traders  naturally 
chose  Indian  villages  as  the  sites  for  most  of  their 
posts,  and  such  villages  were  generally  at  places  well 
selected  for  the  purpose.  They  were  on  portage  trails, 
where  craft  had  to  be  carried  around  falls  or  rapids,  as 
at  De  Pere,  Kaukauna,  Appleton,  and  Neenah  ;  or  they 
were  on  portage  plains,  between  distinct  water  systems, 
as  at  Portage  and  Sturgeon  Bay ;  or  they  were  at  the 
mouths  or  junctions  of  rivers,  as  at  Milwaukee,  Sheboy- 
gan,  Oshkosh,  Lacrosse,  and  Prairie  du  Chien  ;  or  they 
occupied  commanding  positions  on  lake  or  river  bank, 
overlooking  a  wide  stretch  of  country.  Thus  most  of 
the  leading  cities  of  Wisconsin  are  on  the  sites  of  old 
Indian  villages ;  for  the  reasons  which  led  to  their 
choice  by  the  Indians  held  good  with  the  white  pio- 
neers in  the  old  days  when  rivers  and  lakes  were  the 
chief  highways.  Thus  we  have  first  the  Indian  village, 
then  the  trading  post,  and  later  the  modern  town. 

The  Indian  trails  were  also  largely  used  by  the  trad- 
ers in  seeking  the  natives  in  their  villages  ;  later  these 
trails  developed  into  public  roads,  when  American  set- 
tlers came  to  occupy  the  country.  Thus  we  see  that 
Wisconsin  was  quite  thoroughly  explored,  its  principal 
cities  and  highways  located,  and  its  water  ways  mapped 
out  by  the  early  French,  long  before  the  inrush  of 
agricultural  colonists. 


IN   THE   OLD    FRENCH    DAYS 

IN  establishing  their  chain  of  rude  forts,  or  trading 
posts,  along  the  Great  Lakes  and  through  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi,  the  French  had  no  desire  to  plant 
agricultural  settlements  in  the  West.  Their  chief 
thought  was  to  keep  the  continental  interior  as  a  great 
fur  bearing  wilderness ;  to  encourage  the  Indians  to 
hunt  for  furs,  by  supplying  all  their  other  wants  with 
articles  made  in  Europe ;  and  to  prevent  them  from 
carrying  any  of  their  furs  to  the  English,  who  were 
always  underbidding  the  French  in  prices. 

The  officers  of  these  forts  were  instructed  to  bully 
or  to  persuade  the  Indians,  as  occasion  demanded  ;  and 
some  of  them  became  very  successful  in  this  forest 
diplomacy.  Around  most  of  the  forts  were  small  groups 
of  temporary  settlers,  who  could  hardly  be  called  colo- 
nists, for  they  expected  when  they  had  made  their 
fortunes,  or  when  their  working  days  were  over,  to 
return  to  their  own  people  on  the  lower  St.  Lawrence 
River.  It  was  rather  an  army  of  occupation,  than  a 
body  of  settlers.  Nearly  every  one  in  the  settlement 
was  dependent  on  the  fur  trade,  either  as  agent,  clerk, 
trapper,  boatman,  or  general  employee. 

Sometimes  these  little  towns  were  the  outgrowth  of 
early  Jesuit  missions,  as  La  Pointe  (on  Chequamegon 
87 


88 

Bay),  or  Green  Bay  (De  Pere);  but  sooner  or  later 
the  fur  trade  became  the  chief  interest.  Most  of  the 
towns,  however,  like  Milwaukee,  La  Crosse,  or  Prairie 
du  Chien,  were  the  direct  outgrowth  of  commerce  with 
the  savages.  There  were  trading  posts,  also,  on  Lakes 
Chetek,  Flambeau,  Court  Orielles,  and  Sandy,  but  the 
settlements  about  them  were  very  small,  and  they  never 
grew  into  permanent  towns,  as  did  some  of  the  others. 

At  all  these  places,  the  little  log  forts  served  as  de- 
pots for  furs  and  the  goods  used  in  trading  with  the 
Indians  ;  they  were  also  used  as  rallying  points  for  the 
traders  and  other  white  inhabitants  of  the  district,  in 
times  of  Indian  attack.  They  would  have  been  of 
slight  avail  against  an  enemy  with  cannon,  but  afforded 
sufficient  protection  against  the  arrows,  spears,  and 
muskets  of  savages. 

The  French  Canadians  who  lived  in  these  waterside 
hamlets  were  an  easy-going  folk.  Nearly  all  of  them 
were  engaged  in  the  fur  trade  at  certain  seasons  of  the 
year.  The  bourgeois,  or  masters,  were  the  chiefs.  The 
•voyageurs  were  men  of  all  work,  propelling  the  canoes 
and  bateaux  when  afloat,  carrying  the  craft  and  their 
contents  over  portages,  transporting  packs  of  goods  and 
furs  along  the  forest  trails,  caring  for  the  camps,  and 
acting  as  guards  for  the  persons  and  property  of  their 
employers.  The  conrcurs  de  bois,  or  wood  rangers, 
were  everywhere  ;  they  were  devoted  to  a  life  in  the 
woods,  for  the  fun  and  excitement  in  it ;  they  conducted 
trade  on  their  own  account,  far  off  in  the  most  inacces- 
sible places,  and  were  men  of  great  daring.  Then  there 
were  the  habitants,  or  permanent  villagers ;  sometimes 


89 


these  worked  as  voyageurs,  but  for  the  most  part 
they  were  farmers  in  a  small  way,  cultivating  long, 
narrow  "  claims  "  running  at  right  angles  to  the  river 
bank  ;  one  can  still  find  at  Green  Bay  and  Prairie  du 
Chien,  traces  of  some  of  these  old  "  French  claims." 
The  object  of  having  them  so  narrow  was,  that  the 
habitants  could  live  close  ^  ^K  to  one  another, 

*yr  ss£& 

along   the  waterside. 

They  were  of  a 
very  social  nature, 
these  French  habit- 
ants. They  liked 
to  meet  frequently, 
enjoy  their  pipes, 
and  tell  stories  of 
the  hunt  or  of  old  days 
on  the  St.  Lawrence. 
They  were  famous  fid- 
dlers,  too.  No  wilder- 
ness so  far  away 
that  the  little  French 
fiddle  had  not  been 
there  ;  the  Indians  ^f^j^^^^--  recognized  it  as  a 
part  of  the  furniture  V"  of  every  fur  trader's  camp. 
Music  appealed  strongly  to  these  warm  natures,  and 
the  sojigs  of  the  voyageurs,  as  they  propelled  their 
canoes  along  the  Wisconsin  rivers,  always  greatly  inter- 
ested travelers.  French  Canadians  are  still  living  in 
Wisconsin,  who  remember  those  gay  melodies  which 
echoed  through  our  forests  a  hundred  years  ago. 

The  old  French  life  continued  in  Wisconsin  until  well 


90 

into  the  nineteenth  century.  Although  New  France  fell 
in  1760,  and  the  British  came  into  control,  they  never 
succeeded  in  Anglicizing  Wisconsin.  English  fur  com- 
panies succeeded  the  French,  and  British  soldiers  occu- 
pied the  Wisconsin  forts  ;  but  the  fur  trade  itself  had 
still  to  be  conducted  through  French  residents,  who 
alone  had  the  confidence  of  the  Indians.  Great  Britain 
was  supposed  to  surrender  all  this  country  to  the 
United  States  in  1796;  but  it  was  really  1816  before 
the  American  flag  floated  over  Green  Bay,  and  the 
American  Fur  Company  came  into  power.  But,  even 
under  this  company,  most  of  the  actual  trading  was 
done  through  the  French  ;  so  we  may  say  that  as  long 
as  the  fur  trade  remained  the  chief  industry  of  Wiscon- 
sin, about  to  the  year  1835,  the  old  French  life  was  still 
maintained,  and  French  methods  were  everywhere  in 
evidence. 

It  is  surprising  how  strongly  marked  upon  our  Wis- 
consin are  the  memories  of  the  old  French  days.  A 
quiet,  unobtrusive  people,  were  those  early  French, 
without  high  ambitions,  and  simple  in  their  tastes ;  yet 
they  and  theirs  have  displayed  remarkable  tenacity  of 
life,  and  doubtless  their  effect  upon  us  of  to-day  will 
never  be  effaced.  Our  map  is  sprinkled  all  over 
with  the  French  names  which  they  gave  to  our  hills 
and  lakes  and  streams,  and  early  towns.  We  may  here 
mention  a  few  only,  at  random :  Lakes  Flambeau, 
Court  Oreilles,  Pepin,  Vieux  Desert ;  the  rivers  Bois 
Brule,  Eau  Claire,  Eau  Pleine,  Embarrass,  St.  Croix ; 
the  counties  Eau  Claire,  Fond  du  Lac,  La  Crosse,  Lang- 
lade,  Marquette,  Portage,  Racine,  St.  Croix,  Trem- 


pealeau;  the  towns  of  Racine,  La  Crosse,  Prairie  du 
Chien,  Butte  des  Morts.  Scores  of  others  can  readily 
be  found  in  the  atlas.  In  the  cities  of  Green  Bay, 
Kaukauna,  Portage,  and  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  the 
dreamy  little  Fox  River  hamlet  of  Grand  Butte  des 
Morts,  are  still  to  be  found  little  closely-knit  colonies 
of  French  Creoles,  descendants  of  those  who  lived  and 
ruled  under  the  old  French  regime. 

The  time  must  come,  in  the  molding  of  all  the 
foreign  elements  in  our  midst  into  the  American  of  the" 
future,  when  the  French  element  will  no  longer  exist 
among  us  as  an  element,  but  merely  as  a  memory.  If 
our  posterity  can  inherit  from  those  early  French  occu- 
pants of  our  soil  their  simple  tastes,  their  warm  hearts, 
their  happy  temperament,  their  social  virtues,  then  the  old 
French  regime  will  have  brought  a  blessing  to  Wiscon- 
sin, and  not  merely  a  halo  of  historical  romance. 


THE   COMING   OF   THE    ENGLISH 

UPON  the  eighth  day  of  September,  1760,  the 
French  flag  ceased  to  fly  over  Canada.  In  a 
long  and  bitter  struggle,  lasting  at  intervals  through 
an  entire  century,  French  and  English  had  been 
battling  with  each  other  for  the  control  of  the  in- 
terior of  this  continent ;  and  the  former  had  lost 
everything  at  the  decisive  battle  on  the  Plains  of 
Abraham,  before  the  walls  of  Quebec. 

Reduced  to  the  last  extremity,  the  authorities  of 
New  France  had  ordered  her  fur  traders,  courenrs 
de  bois  and  all,  to  hurry  down  to  the  settlements  on 
the  St.  Lawrence,  and  aid  in  protecting  them  against 
the  English.  Thus  in  the  Wisconsin  forests,  when  the 
end  came,  there  were  left  no  Frenchmen  of  impor- 
tance. Leaving  their  Indian  friends,  and  many  of  them 
their  Indian  wives  and  half-breed  families,  they  had 
obeyed  the  far  away  summons,  and  several  lost  their 
lives  in  the  great  battle  or  in  the  skirmishes  which 
preceded  it.  The  others,  who  at  last  returned,  were 
quick  to  show  favor  to  the  English,  for  little  they 
really  cared  who  were  their  political  masters  so  long 
as  they  were  let  alone.  The  Indians,  too,  although 
personally  they  preferred  the  French  to  the  English, 

£2 


93 

were  glad  enough  to  see  the  latter,  because  they 
brought  better  prices  for  furs. 

Wisconsin  was  so  far  away  that  it  took  a  long  time 
for  British  soldiers  to  reach  the  deserted  and  tumble- 
down fort  at  Green  Bay.  About  the  middle  of  October. 
1761,  there  arrived  from  Mackinac  Lieutenant  James 
Gorrell  and  seventeen  men  to  hold  all  of  this  country 
for  King  George.  The  station  had  been  called  by 
the  French  Fort  St.  Francis,  but  the  name  was  now 
changed  to  Fort  Edward  Augustus. 

It  was  a  very  lonely  and  dismal  winter  for  the 
British  soldiers,  for  nearly  all  the 'neighboring  savages 
were  away  on  their  winter  hunt  and  did  not  return  until 
spring.  Mackinac,  then  a  poor  little  trading  village, 
was  two  hundred  forty  miles  away ;  there  was  a  trading 
post  at  St.  Josephs  on  the  southeast  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan,  four  hundred  miles  distant ;  and  the  near- 
est French  villages  on  the  Mississippi  were  eight  hun- 
dred miles  of  canoe  journey  to  the  southwest.  All 
between  was  savagery  :  here  and  there  a  squalid  In- 
dian village,  with  its  conical  wigwams  of  bark  or 
matted  reeds,  pitched  on  the  shore  of  a  lake,  at  the 
foot  of  a  portage  trail,  or  on  the  banks  of  a  forest 
stream.  Now  and  then  a  French  trading  party  passed 
along  the  frozen  trails,  following  the  natives  on  the 
hunt  and  poisoning  their  minds  against  the  new- 
comers, who  were  struggling  to  make  their  poor  old 
stockade  a  fairly  decent  shelter  against  the  winter 
storms. 

But,  when  the  savages  returned  to  Green  Bay  in 
the  spring,  they  met  with  fair  words  from  Gorrell,  a 


94 

plentiful  distribution  of  presents,  and  good  prices  for 
furs,  and  their  hearts  were  won.  In  1763  occurred 
the  great  uprising  led  by  Pontiac  against  the  Eng- 
lish in  the  Northwest,  during  which  the  garrison  at 
Mackinac  was  massacred.  This  disturbed  the  friend- 
ship of  Gorrell's  neighbors,  with  the  exception  of  a 
Menominee  band,  headed  by  chief  Ogemaunee ;  and 
in  June  of  that  year  the  little  garrison,  together  with 
the  English  traders  at  Green  Bay,  found  it  neces- 
sary to  leave  hastily  for  Cross  Village,  on  the  east- 
ern shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  escorted  by  Ogemaunee 
and  ninety  painted  Menominees,  who  had  volunteered 
to  protect  these  Englishmen  from  the  unfriendly 
Indians. 

At  Cross  Village  were  several  soldiers  who  had 
escaped  from  Mackinac,  and  the  two  parties  and  their 
escorts  soon  left  in  canoes  for  Montreal,  by  the  way  of 
Ottawa  River.  This  old  fur  trade  route  was  followed 
in  order  to  escape  Pontiac's  Indians,  who  controlled 
the  country  about  Detroit  and  along  the  lower  lake. 
They  arrived  safely  at  their  destination  in  August. 
The  following  year  there  was  held  a  great  council  at 
Niagara,  presided  over  by  the  famous  Sir  William 
Johnson,  who  was  then  serving  as  British  superin- 
tendent for  the  Northern  Indians.  At  this  council 
Ogemaunee  was  present  representing  the  Menominees 
of  Wisconsin.  In  token  of  his  valuable  services  in 
escorting  Lieutenant  Gorrell's  party  to  Montreal,  and 
thereby  delivering  them  safely  from  the  great  danger 
which  threatened,  Ogemaunee  was  given  a  certificate, 
which  reads  as  follows :  — 


95 


[SEAL  OF  WAX]  By  the  Honourable  Sir  William  Johnson 
Baronet,  His  Majesty's  sole  agent  and  super- 
intendent of  the  affairs  of  the  Northern  In- 
dians of  North  America,  Colony  of  the  six 
United  Nations  their  allies  and  dependants 
&c.  &c.  &c. 

To  OGemawnee  a  Chief  of  the  Menomings  Nation  : 

Whereas  I  have  received  from  the  officers  who  Commanded 
the  Out  posts  as  well  as  from  other  persons  an  account  of  your 
good  behaviour  last  year  in  protecting  the  Officers,  Soldiers  &c. 
of  the  Garrison  of  La  Bay,  and  in  escorting  them  down  to  Mon- 
treal as  also  the  Effects  of  the  Traders  to  a  large  amount,  and 
your  having  likewise  entered  into  the  strongest  Engagements 
of  Friendship  with  the  English  before  me  at  this  place.  I  do 
therefore  give  you  This  Testimony  of  my  Esteem  for  your  Ser- 
vices and  Good  behaviour. 

Given  under  my  hand  &  Seal  at  Arms  at 
Niagara  the  first  day  of  August  1 764. 

Wm.  Johnson. 


This  piece  of  paper,  which  showed  that  he  was  a 
good  friend  of  the  English,  was  of  almost  as  great 
importance  to  Ogemaunee  as  a  patent  of  nobility  in  the 
Old  World.  He  carried  it  with  him  back  to  Wisconsin, 
and  it  remained  in  his  family  from  one  generation  to 
another,  for  fully  a  hundred  years.  One  day  a  blank- 
eted and  painted  descendant  of  Ogemaunee  presented 
it  to  an  American  officer  who  visited  his  wigwam.  This 
descendant,  doubtless,  knew  little  of  its  meaning,  but 
it  had  been  used  in  his  famdly  as  a  charm  for  bringing 
good  luck,  and  in  his  admiration  for  this  kind  officer 
he  gave  it  to  him,  for  the  Indian  is,  by  nature,  grate- 
ful and  generous.  In  the  course  of  years  the  paper 
was  presented  to  the  State  Historical  Society,  by  which 
it  is  preserved  as  an  interesting  and  suggestive  relic 
of  those  early  days  of  the  English  occupation  of  Wis- 


WISCONSIN    IN   THE   REVOLUTIONARY 
WAR 

WE  ordinarily  think  of  the  Revolutionary  War  as 
having  been  fought  wholly  upon  the  Atlantic 
slope.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  were  enacted  west  of 
the  Alleghanies,  during  that  great  struggle,  deeds  which 
proved  of  immense  importance  to  the  welfare  of  the 
United  States.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  capture  from 
the  British  of  the  country  northwest  of  the  Ohio  River 
by  the  gallant  Virginia  colonel,  George  Rogers  Clark, 
it  is  fair  to  assume  that  the  Old  Northwest,  as  it  came 
to  be  called,  the  present  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illi- 
nois, Michigan,  and  Wisconsin,  would  to-day  be  a  part 
of  the  Dominion  of  Canada. 

After  the  brief  flurry  of  the  Pontiac  conspiracy  (1763), 
the  Indians  of  the  Old  Northwest  became  good  friends 
of  the  British,  whose  aim  was  to  encourage  the  fur 
trade  and  to  keep  the  savages  good-natured.  The  Eng- 
lish have  always  been  more  successful  in  their  treatment 
of  Indians  than  have  Americans ;  they  are  more  gener- 
ous with  them,  and  while  not  less  firm  than  we,  they 
are  more  considerate  of  savage  wants.  The  French 
and  the  half-breeds,  too,  were  very  soon  the  warm  sup- 
porters of  British  policy,  because  English  fur  trade 

STO.   OF   BADGER   STA.  —  7  97 


companies  gave  them  abundant  employment,  and 
evinced  no  desire  other  than  to  foster  the  primitive 
conditions  under  which  the  fur  trade  prospered. 

The  English  were  not  desirous  of  settling  the  West- 
ern wilderness  with  farmers,  thereby  driving  out  the 
game.  Our  people,  however,  have  always  been  of  a 
land-grabbing  temper;  we  have  sought  to  beat  down 
the  walls  of  savagery,  to  push  settlement,  to  cut  down 
the  forests,  to  plow  the  land,  to  drive  the  Indian  out. 
This  meant  the  death  of  the  fur  trade ;  hence  it  is 
small  wonder  that,  when  the  Revolutionary  War  broke 
out,  the  French  and  Indians  of  the  Northwest  upheld 
the  British  and  opposed  the  Americans. 

A  number  of  scattered  white  settlers  and  a  few  small 
villages  had  appeared  along  the  Ohio  River  and  many 
of  its  southern  tributaries.  In  Kentucky  there  were 
several  log  forts,  around  each  of  which  were  grouped 
the  rude  cabins  of  frontiersmen,  who  were  half  farmers 
and  half  hunters,  tall,  stalwart  fellows,  as  courageous 
as  lions,  and  ever  on  the  alert  for  the  crouching  Indian 
foe,  who  came  when  least  expected.  The  country  north- 
west of  the  Ohio  River  was  then  a  part  of  the  British 
province  of  Quebec.  Here  and  there  in  this  Old  North- 
west, as  we  now  call  it,  were  small  villages  of  French 
and  half-breed  fur  traders,  each  village  protected  by  a 
little  log  fort;  some  of  these  villages  were  garrisoned 
by  a  handful  of  British  soldiers,  and  others  only  by 
French  Canadians  who  were  friendly  to  the  English. 
Such  were  Vincennes,  in  what  is  now  Indiana;  Kas- 
kaskia  and  Cahokia,  in  the  Illinois  country ;  Prairie  du 
Chien  and  Green  Bay,  in  Wisconsin ;  and  Mackinac 


99 

Island  and  Detroit,  in  Michigan.  Detroit  was  the  head- 
quarters, where  lived  the  British  lieutenant  governor  of 
the  Northwest,  Henry  Hamilton,  a  bold,  brave,  untiring, 
unscrupulous  man. 

Hamilton's  chief  business  was  to  gather  about  him  the 
Indians  of  the  Northwest,  and  to  excite  in  them  hatred 
of  the  American  settlers  in  Kentucky.  In  1777,  war 
parties  sent  out  by  him  from  Detroit,  under  cover  of  the 
forts  of  Vincennes,  Kaskaskia,  and  Cahokia,  swept  Ken- 
tucky from  end  to  end,  and  the  whole  American  fron- 
tier was  the  scene  of  a  frightful  panic.  The  American 
backwoodsmen  were  ambushed,  many  of  the  block- 
house posts  were  burned,  prisoners  were  subjected  to 
nameless  horrors,  and  it  seemed  as  if  pandemonium  had 
broken  loose.  By  the  close  of  the  year,  such  had  been 
the  rush  of  settlers  back  to  their  old  homes,  east  of  the 
mountains,  that  but  five  or  six  hundred  frontiersmen 
remained  in  all  Kentucky.  Had  the  British  and  the 
Indians  succeeded  in  driving  back  all  of  the  settlers, 
they  would  have  held  the  whole  interior  of  the  conti- 
nent, and  the  American  republic  might  never  have  been 
permitted  to  grow  beyond  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Blue 
Ridge;  hemmed  in  to  the  Atlantic  slope,  this  could 
never  have  become  the  great  nation  it  is  today. 

Prominent  among  the  defenders  of  Kentucky  in  1777 
was  George  Rogers  Clark.  He  was  but  twenty-five 
years  of  age,  had  come  from  a  good  family  in  Virginia, 
and  had  a  fair  education  for  that  day,  but  had  been  a 
wood  rover  from  childhood.  He  was  tall  and  com- 
manding in  person,  a  great  hunter,  and  a  backwoods 
land  surveyor,  such  as  Washington  was.  With  chain 


100 

and  compass,  ax  and  rifle,  he  had,  in  the  employ  of  land 
speculators,  wandered  far  and  wide  through  the  border 
region,  knowing  its  trails,  its  forts,  its  mountain  passes, 
and  its  aborigines  better  than  he  knew  his  books.  As- 
sociated with  him  were  Boone,  Benjamin  Logan,  and 
others  who  were  prominent  among  American  border 
heroes. 

Clark  saw  that  the  best  way  to  defend  Kentucky  was 
to  strike  the  enemy  in  their  own  country.  Gaining 
permission  from  Patrick  Henry,  governor  of  Virginia, 
for  Kentucky  was  then  but  a  county  of  Virginia,  and 
obtaining  some  small  assistance  in  money,  he  raised,  in 
1778,  a  little  army  of  a  hundred  fifty  backwoodsmen, 
clad  in  buckskin  and  homespun,  who  came  from  the 
hunters'  camps  of  the  Alleghanies.  The  men  collected 
at  Pittsburg  and  Wheeling,  and  in  flatboats  cautiously 
descended  the  Ohio  to  the  falls,  where  is  now  the  city 
of  Louisville.  Here,  on  an  island,  they  built  a  fort  as 
a  military  base,  and  the  strongest  of  the  party  pushed 
on  down  the  river  to  the  abandoned  old  French  Fort 
Massac,  ten  miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee, 
from  which  they  marched  overland,  for  a  hundred 
twenty  miles,  to  Kaskaskia  in  western  Illinois. 

Capturing  Kaskaskia  by  surprise  (July  4),  and  soon 
gaining  the  good  will  of  the  French  there,  Clark  sent 
out  messengers  who  easily  won  over  the  neighboring 
Cahokia ;  and  very  soon  even  Vincennes,  on  the  Wabash 
River,  sent  in  its  submission.  It  was  not  long  before 
Hamilton,  at  Detroit,  heard  the  humiliating  news.  He 
at  once  sent  out  two  French  agents,  Charles  de  Lang- 
lade  and  Charles  Gautier,  of  Green  Bay,  to  raise  a 


101 

large  war  party  of  Wisconsin  Indians.  They  succeeded 
so  well,  that  Hamilton  set  out  from  Detroit  in  October, 
to  retake  Vincennes.  His  force  consisted  of  nearly  two 
hundred  whites  (chiefly  French)  and  three  hundred 
Indians.  Such  were  the  obstacles  to  overcome  in  an 
unbroken  wilderness,  that  he  was  seventy-one  days  in 
reaching  his  destination.  Clark  had  left  but  two  of  his 
soldiers  at  Vincennes,  and  as  their  French  allies  at 
once  surrendered,  there  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  give 
up  the  place. 

Now  came  one  of  the  most  stirring  deeds  in  our  West- 
ern history.  Clark,  at  Kaskaskia,  soon  learned  of  the 
loss  of  Vincennes ;  at  the  same  time,  it  was  told  him 
that  the  greater  part  of  Hamilton's  expedition  had  dis- 
banded for  the  winter,  the  lieutenant  governor  intending 
to  launch  a  still  larger  war  party  against  him  in  the 
spring.  Thereupon  Clark  determined  not  to  await  an 
attack,  but  himself  to  make  an  attack  on  Hamilton, 
who  had  remained  in  charge  of  Vincennes. 

The  distance  across  country,  from  Kaskaskia  to  Vin- 
cennes, is  about  two  hundred  thirty  miles.  In  sum- 
mer it  was  a  delightful  region  of  alternating  groves  and 
prairies ;  in  the  dead  of  winter,  it  would  afford  fair 
traveling  over  the  frozen  plains  and  ice-bound  rivers ; 
but^now,  in  February  (1779),  the  weather  had  moder- 
ated, and  great  freshets  had  flooded  the  lowlands  and 
meadows.  The  ground  was  boggy,  and  progress  was 
slow  and  difficult ;  there  were  no  tents,  and  the  floods 
had  driven  away  much  of  the  game ;  and  Clark  and  his 
officers  were  often  taxed  to  their  wits'  ends  to  devise 
methods  for  keeping  their  hard-worked  men  in  good 


102 


spirits.  Often  they  were  obliged  to  wade  in  the  icy 
water,  for  miles  together,  and  to  sleep  at  night  in 
soaked  clothes  upon  little  brush-strewn  hillocks,  shiv- 
ering with  cold,  and  without  food  or  fire. 


But  at  last,  after 
nearly  three  weeks  of  almost  superhuman 
exertion  and  indescribable  misery,  Vincennes  was 
reached.  The  British  garrison  was  taken  by  surprise, 
but  held  out  with  obstinacy,  and  throughout  the  long 
moonlight  night  the  battle  raged  with  much  fury.  The 
log  fort  was  on  the  top  of  a  hill  overlooking  the  little 
town;  it  was  armed  with  several  small  cannon,  but 
Clark's  men  had  only  their  muskets.  They  were, 
however,  served  freely  with  ammunition  by  the  French 
villagers ;  and,  being  expert  marksmen,  could  hit  the 
gunners  by  firing  through  the  loopholes,  so  that  by 
sunrise  the  garrison  was  sadly  crippled.  The  fight 


103 

continued  throughout  the  following  morning,  and  in 
the  afternoon  the  British  ran  up  the  white  flag.  Ham- 
ilton and  twenty-six  of  his  fellows  were  sent  as  pris- 
oners overland  to  Virginia. 

Clark  remained  as  master  of  the  Northwest  until  the 
close  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  The  fact  that  the  flag 
of  the  republic  waved  over  Vincennes,  Kaskaskia,  and 
Cahokia  when  the  war  ended,  had  much  to  do  with  the 
decision  of  the  peace  commissioners  to  allow  the  United 
States  to  retain  the  country  lying  between  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi  rivers  and  the  Great  Lakes. 

During  the  Revolution,  none  of  the  forts  in  Wisconsin 
were  occupied  by  British  soldiers,  and  they  were  allowed 
to  tumble  into  decay.  Wisconsin  was,  however,  used  as 
a  recruiting  ground  for  Indian  allies.  Not  only  did 
Langlade  and  Gautier  raise  a  war  party  of  Wisconsin 
Indians  to  help  Hamilton  in  his  expedition  against 
Vincennes,  but  they  were  frequently  in  Wisconsin  on 
similar  business  during  the  war.  In  1779  Gautier  led 
a  party  of  Wisconsin  Indians  to  Peoria,  in  the  Illinois 
country,  where  there  was  an  old  French  fort  which, 
it  was  thought,  might  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
Americans.  Gautier  burned  this  fort,  and  then  hastily 
retreated  because  he  found  that  Clark  was  making 
friends  with  all  the  Illinois  Indians. 

Clark's  agents  traded  as  far  north  as  Portage,  in 
Wisconsin.  At  Prairie  du  Chien  they  induced  Linctot, 
a  famous  French  fur  trader,  to  join  the  Americans. 
Linctot  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a  party  of  five 
hundred  French  and  half-breed  horsemen,  who  were 
of  much  assistance  to  Clark  in  his  various  movements 


IO4 

after  the  capture  of  Vincennes.  Meanwhile  another 
large  party,  chiefly  of  Indians,  assembled  at  Prairie 
du  Chien  in  the  British  cause,  led  by  three  French 
traders,  Hesse,  Du  Charme,  and  Calve.  They  raided 
the  upper  Mississippi  valley,  capturing  provisions  in- 
tended for  the  Americans,  and  making  a  futile  attack 
on  the  Spanish  village  of  St.  Louis,  which  was  thought 
to  be  assisting  Clark. 

Despite  these  military  operations  in  Wisconsin,  the 
English  fur  trade  continued  in  full  strength,  with  head- 
quarters upon  the  Island  of  Mackinac,  but  with  French 
agents  and  boatmen,  whose  principal  dwelling  places 
were  at  Green  Bay  and  Prairie  du  Chien.  Upon  Lake 
Superior  large  canoes  and  bateaux  were  used ;  but 
upon  Lake  Michigan  were  three  small  sloops,  the 
Welcome,  the  Felicity,  and  the  ArcJiangel,  which  car- 
ried supplies  and  furs  for  the  traders,  and  made  fre- 
quent cruises  to  see  that  the  "  Bostonians,"  as  the 
French  used  to  call  the  Americans,  obtained  no  foot- 
hold upon  the  shore  of  the  lake. 

Just  before  the  close  of  the  war,  the  British  com- 
mander at  Mackinac  Island,  Captain  Patrick  Sinclair, 
held  a  council  with  the  Indians,  and  for  a  small  sum 
purchased  for  himself  their  claims  to  that  island  and  to 
nearly  all  of  the  land  now  comprising  Wisconsin.  But 
the  treaty  of  1783,  between  the  British  and  the  Amer- 
icans, did  not  recognize  this  purchase,  and  Sinclair 
found  that  he  was  no  longer  the  owner  of  Wisconsin. 
It  had  become,  largely  through  the  valor  of  Clark,  and 
the  persistence  of  our  treaty  commissioners,  a  part 
of  the  territory  of  the  United  States. 


THE  RULE  OF  JUDGE  REAUME 

BY  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Great  Britain,  in  1783,  the 
country  northwest  of  the  Ohio  River  was  declared 
to  be  a  part  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States ;  but 
it  was  many  years  before  the  Americans  had  anything 
more  than  a  nominal  control  of  Wisconsin,  which  was 
a  part  of  this  Northwestern  region.  The  United  States 
was  at  first  unable  to  meet  all  of  its  obligations  under 
this  treaty ;  hence  Great  Britain  kept  possession  of  the 
old  fur  trade  posts  on  the  Upper  Lakes,  including 
Mackinac,  of  which  Wisconsin  was  a  "  dependency." 
A  British  garrison  was  kept  at  Mackinac,  thus  con- 
trolling the  fur  trade  of  this  district,  but  no  troops  were 
deemed  necessary  within  Wisconsin  itself. 

To  the  few  white  inhabitants  of  the  small  fur  trade 
villages  of  Green  Bay  and  Prairie  du  Chien,  there  was 
slight  evidence  of  any  of  these  various  changes  in  politi- 
cal ownership.  Beyond  the  brief  stay  among  them  of 
Lieutenant  Gorrell  and  his  little  band  of  redcoats,  in 
the  years  1761-63,  the  French  and  half-breeds  of  Wis- 
consin led  much  the  same  life  as  of  old. 

In  1780,  an  English  fur  trader,  John  Long,  passed  up 
the  Fox  River  and  down  the  Wisconsin,  and  bought  up 
a  great  many  furs  in  this  region.  Some  years  later 
105 


io6 

he  wrote  a  book  about  his  travels,  and  from  this  we 
get  a  very  good  idea  of  life  among  the  French  and 
Indians  of  the  Northwest.  Long  was  at  Green  Bay 
for  several  days,  and  tells  us  that  the  houses  there 
were  covered  with  birch  bark,  and  the  rooms  were 
decorated  with  bows  and  arrows,  guns,  and  spears. 
There  were  in  the  village  not  over  fifty  whites,  divided 
into  six  or  seven  families.  The  men  were  for  the 
most  part  engaged  as  assistants  to  the  two  or  three 
leading  traders ;  they  spent  their  winters  in  the  woods, 
picking  up  furs  at  the  Indian  camps,  and  in  sum- 
mer cultivated  their  narrow  strips  of  gardens  which 
ran  down  to  the  river's  edge.  It  mattered  little  to 
them  who  was  their  political  master,  so  long  as  they 
were  left  to  enjoy  their  simple  lives  in  their  own 
fashion. 

To  this  primitive  community  there  came  one  day,  in 
1803,  a  portly,  pompous,  bald  headed  little  Frenchman, 
named  Charles  Reaume.  Wisconsin  was  then  a  part  of 
Indiana  Territory,  of  which  William  Henry  Harrison 
was  governor.  It  was  for  the  most  part  a  wilderness ; 
dense  woods  and  tenantless  prairies  extended  all  the 
way  from  the  narrow  clearing  at  Green  Bay  to  the 
little  settlement  at  Prairie  du  Chien.  There  were  small 
clearings  at  Portage,  Milwaukee,  and  one  or  two  other 
fur  trading  posts.  There  was  no  civil  government  here, 
and  the  few  white  people  in  all  this  vast  stretch  of 
country  practically  made  their  own  laws,  each  man 
being  judge  and  jury  for  himself,  so  long  as  he  did 
not  interfere  with  other  people's  rights. 

Reaume  bore  a  commission  from  Governor  Harrison, 


appointing  him  justice  of  the  peace  at  Green  Bay, 
which  meant  nearly  all  of  the  country  west  of  Lake 
Michigan.  Thus  "Judge  Reaume,"  as  he  was  called, 
was  the  only  civil  officer  in  Wisconsin,  and  although 
apparently  never  reappointed,  he  retained  this  distinc- 
tion by  popular  consent  until  after  the  War  of  1812-15  ; 
indeed,  for  several  years  after  that,  he  was  the  prin- 
cipal officer  of  justice  in  these  parts. 

The  judge  was  a  good-hearted  man,  when  one  pene- 
trated beneath  the  crust  of  official  pomposity  with 
which  he  was  generally  enveloped.  He  appears  to 
have  owned  a  volume  of  Blackstone,  but  the  only  law 
he  understood  or  practiced  was  the  old  "  Law  of 
Paris,"  which  had  governed  Canada  from  the  earliest 
time,  and  which  still  rules  in  the  Province  of  Quebec, 
and  it  is  related  that  he  knew  little  of  that.  His  deci- 
sions were  arbitrary,  but  were  generally  based  on  the 
right  as  he  saw  it,  quite  regardless  of  the  technicalities 
of  the  law. 

A  great  many  queer  stories  are  told  of  old  Judge 
Reaume.  He  loved  display  after  his  simple  fashion, 
and  invented  for  himself  an  official  uniform,  which  he 
wore  on  all  public  occasions.  This  consisted  of  a  scar- 
let frock  coat  faced  with  white  silk,  and  gay  with  span- 
gled buttons ;  it  can  still  be  seen  in  the  museum  of 
the  State  Historical  Society.  He  issued  few  warrants 
or  subpoenas ;  it  is  told  of  him  that  whenever  he  wanted 
a  person  to  appear  before  him,  either  as  witness  or 
principal,  he  sent  to  that  person  the  constable,  bearing 
his  honor's  well-known  large  jackknife,  which  was  quite 
as  effectual  as  the  king's  signet  ring  of  olden  days. 


io3 


Quite  often  did  he  adjudge  guilty  both  complainant 
and  defendant,  obliging  them  both  to  pay  a  fine,  or  to 
work  so  many  days  in  his  garden;  and  sometimes  both 
were  acquitted,  the  constable  being  ordered  to  pay  the 
costs.  It  is  even  said  that  the  present  of  a  bottle  of 
whisky  to  the  judge  was  sufficient  to  insure  a  favor- 
able decision.  The  story  is 
told  that  once,  when  the 
judge  had  actually  ren- 
dered a  decision  in  a 
"  ,  certain  case,  the  per- 
!  son  decided  against 
presented  the  court 
with  a  new  coffee-pot, 
whereupon  the  judg- 
ment was  reversed. 

There  may  be  some 
exaggeration  in  these 
tales    of    the    earliest 
judge  in  Wisconsin,  but 
they  appear  to  be  in  the 
main  substantiated.    Never- 
theless, although  there  doubtless 

was  some  grumbling,  it  speaks  well  for  the  old  justice 
of  the  peace,  and  for  the  orderly  good  nature  of  this 
little  French  community  without  a  jail,  that  no  one  ap- 
pears ever  to  have  questioned  the  legality  of  Reaume's 
decisions.  These  were  strictly  abided  by,  and  although 
he  was  never  reappointed,  he  held  office  under  both 
American  and  British  sway,  simply  because  no  one  was 
sent  to  succeed  him. 


GOT1 


109 

Not  only  was  Reaume  Wisconsin's  judge  and  jury 
during  the  first  two  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
but  as  there  was,  during  much  of  his  time,  no  priest 
hereabouts,  he  drew  up  marriage  contracts,  and  mar- 
ried and  divorced  people  at  will,  issued  baptismal  cer- 
tificates, and  kept  a  registry  of  births  and  deaths. 
He  certified  alike  to  British  and  American  military  com- 
missions ;  drew  up  contracts  between  the  fur  traders 
and  their  employees;  wrote  letters  for  the  habitants; 
and  performed  for  the  settlers  all  those  functions  of 
Church  and  state  for  which  we  now  require  a  long  list 
of  officials  and  professional  men.  He  was  a  picturesque 
and  important  functionary,  illustrating  in  his  person  the 
simple  fashions  and  modest  desires  of  the  French  who 
first  settled  this  State.  We  are  now  a  wealthier  people, 
but  certainly  there  have  never  been  happier  times  in 
Wisconsin,  all  things  considered,  than  in  the  primitive 
days  of  old  Judge  Reaume  and  his  official  jackknife. 


THE   BRITISH   CAPTURE   PRAIRIE   DU 
CHIEN 

A  LTHOUGH  the  Northwest  was  obtained  for  the 
/i  United  States  by  the  treaty  with  Great  Britain  in 
1783,  the  fur  trade  posts  on  the  Upper  Great  Lakes 
were  openly  held  by  the  mother  country  until  the  new 
republic  could  fully  meet  its  financial  obligations  to  her. 
After  thirteen  years,  a  new  treaty  (1796)  officially  recog- 
nized American  supremacy.  Nevertheless,  for  another 
thirteen  years  English  fur  traders  were  practically  in 
possession  of  Wisconsin,  operating  through  French 
Canadian  and  half-breed  agents,  clerks,  and  voyageiirs, 
until  John  Jacob  Astor  ( 1 809)  organized  the  American 
Fur  Company,  and  English  fur  traders  were  forbidden 
to  operate  here. 

The  military  officers  in  Canada  were  firmly  convinced 
that  the  Americans  could  not  long  hold  the  Northwest. 
They  believed  that  some  day  there  would  be  another 
war,  and  the  country  would  once  more  become  the 
property  of  Great  Britain.  Therefore  they  sought  to 
keep  on  good  terms  with  our  Indians  and  French,  giving 
them  presents  and  employment. 

Thus,  when  our  second  war  with  Great  Britain  did 
break  out,  in  1812,  nearly  all  the  people  living  in  Wis- 
consin, and  elsewhere  in  the  wild  northern  parts  of  the 

IIO 


Ill 

Northwest,  were  strong  friends  of  the  British  cause. 
To  them  the  issue  was  very  clear.  British  victory 
meant  the  perpetuation  of  old  times  and  old  methods, 
so  dear  to  them  and  to  their  ancestors  before  them. 
American  victory  meant  the  cutting  down  of  the  for- 
ests, the  death  knell  of  the  fur  trade,  and  the  coming  of 
a  swarm  of  strange  people,  heretofore  almost  unknown 
to  Wisconsin.  These  people  had  been  described  to 
them  as  an  uneasy,  selfish,  land  grabbing  folk,  who 
knew  not  how  to  enjoy  themselves,  and  were  for  turn- 
ing the  world  upside  down  with  their  Yankee  notions. 
Naturally,  the  easy-going,  comfort  loving  Wisconsin 
French  looked  upon  their  coming  with  great  alarm. 

The  principal  event  of  the  war  in  Wisconsin  was 
the  capture  of  Prairie  du  Chien  by  the  British,  in  1814. 
Wisconsin  was  then  a  part  of  Illinois  Territory,  and 
west  of  the  Mississippi  River  lay  the  enormous  Mis- 
souri Territory.  General  William  Clark,  a  younger 
brother  of  George  Rogers  Clark,  was  governor  of  Mis- 
souri Territory,  and  had  in  charge  the  conduct  of  mili- 
tary operations  along  the  Upper  Mississippi  River. 

Governor  Clark  had  heard  that  the  British,  by  this 
time  strongly  intrenched  on  Mackinac  Island,  intended 
to  send  an  expedition  up  the  Fox  River  and  down  the 
Wisconsin,  to  seize  upon  Prairie  du  Chien,  which  had 
not  b'een  fortified  since  the  old  French  days.  Clark 
recognized  that  the  power  that  held  Prairie  du  Chien 
practically  held  the  entire  Upper  Mississippi  River,  and 
controlled  the  Indians  and  the  fur  trade  of  a  vast  region. 
Accordingly,  early  in  June  (1814)  he  ascended  the  river 
from  his  headquarters  at  St.  Louis,  with  three  hundred 


112 

men  in  six  or  eight  large  boats,  including  a  bullet-proof 
keel  boat,  and  erected  a  stockade  on  the  summit  of  a 
large  Indian  mound  which  lay  on  the  bank  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi a  mile  or  two  above  the  mouth  of  the  Wiscon- 
sin. The  name  given  to  this  stockade  was  Fort  Shelby. 
Lieutenant  Joseph  Perkins  was  left  in  charge  of  the  gar- 
rison, which  was  divided  between  the  fort  and  the  keel 
boat,  the  latter  being  anchored  out  in  the  Mississippi. 

The  British  expedition  from  Mackinac  had  been 
greatly  delayed.  During  the  preceding  autumn,  Rob- 
ert Dickson,  an  English  fur  trader,  had  been  engaged 
in  recruiting  a  large  band  of  Indians  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Green  Bay,  and  with  them  intended  to  occupy 
Prairie  du  Chien.  But  the  Indians  were  evidently 
afraid  to  fight  the  Americans,  and  delayed  Dickson  so 
that  the  canoes  of  his  party  were  caught  in  the  ice  on 
Lake  Winnebago  (December,  1813),  and  he  was  obliged 
to  go  into  winter  quarters  on  Island  Park  (known  to 
the  white  pioneers  as  Garlic  Island). 

Poor  Dickson  had  a  sorry  time  with  his  war  party. 
As  soon  as  it  was  learned  that  provisions  were  being 
freely  given  out  at  this  island  camp,  Indians  from  long 
distances  came  to  visit  him,  under  pretense  of  enlist- 
ing under  the  banner  of  the  British  chief.  Councils 
innumerable  were  held,  presents  and  food  had  to  be 
given  the  visitors  continually,  and  Dickson  was  put  to 
sore  straits  to  keep  them  satisfied.  He  found  it  impos- 
sible to  get  sufficient  supplies  from  British  headquarters 
on  Mackinac  Island,  and  was  being  severely  criticised 
by  the  officers  there,  for  his  exorbitant  demands  upon 
them.  Nevertheless,  unless  he  kept  his  Indians  good- 


H3 

natured,  they  would  promptly  desert  him.  He  was, 
therefore,  forced  to  rely  upon  the  French  of  Green  Bay 
for  what  food  he  needed.  This  came  grudgingly,  and 
at  so  high  prices  that  Dickson  roundly  scolded  the 
Green  Bay  people,  and  promised  to  report  them  for 
punishment  to  the  British  king,  for  daring  to  take 
advantage  of  his  Majesty's  necessities. 

While  Dickson  was  thus  engaged  in  Lake  Winne- 
bago,  a  British  captain  was  drilling  a  number  of 
young  Frenchmen  at  Green  Bay,  and  trying  to  make 
soldiers  of  them ;  at  Mackinac,  a  similar  work  was 
being  done  among  the  voyagenrs  by  the  two  leading 
fur  traders  of  Prairie  du  Chien,  Brisbois  and  Rolette. 
On  the  other  hand,  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  the  American 
Indian  agent,  Boilvin,  was  issuing  circulars  calling  on 
the  people  to  claim  American  protection  before  it  was 
too  late. 

Late  in  June  the  leaders  of  the  expedition  started 
from  Mackinac,  under  the  command  of  Major  William 
McKay,  and  at  Green  Bay,  Lake  Winnebago,  and  Por- 
tage picked  up  various  parties  of  French  and  Indians. 
These  bands  were  much  reduced  from  those  who  had 
been  so  liberally  maintained  during  the  winter,  for 
most  of  the  Indians  were  anxious  to  keep  away  from 
the  fighting  until  it  should  be  evident  which  side  would 
win,  and  many  of  the  French  were  of  the  same  mind. 
By  the  time  Fox  River  had  been  ascended  by  the  fleet 
of  canoes,  and  the  descent  of  the  Wisconsin  begun,  the 
allied  forces  consisted  of  but  a  hundred  twenty  whites 
and  four  hundred  fifty  Indians.  All  of  the  latter,  ac- 
cording to  McKay's  report,  proved  "  perfectly  useless." 

STO.   OF   BADGER   STA. —  8 


114 

On  the  i /th  of  July,  the  British  war  party  landed 
at  Prairie  du  Chien,  to  find  the  Americans,  some  sixty 
or  seventy  strong,  protected  by  a  stockade  and  two 
blockhouses,  on  which  were  mounted  six  small  can- 
non. In  the  river,  the  keel  boat  contained  perhaps 
seventy-five  men  and  fourteen  cannon.  The  British 
had,  besides  their  muskets,  only  a  three-pounder,  and 
the  situation  did  not  look  promising. 

Perkins  was  summoned  to  surrender,  but  he  declared 
that  he  would  "defend  to  the  last  man."  For  two  days 
there  was  a  rather  lively  discharge  of  firearms  on  both 
sides.  Apparently,  the  British  were  the  better  gun- 
ners ;  their  cannonading  soon  forced  the  men  on  the 
keel  boat  to  desert  their  comrades  on  shore,  and  McKay 
then  centered  his  attention  on  the  fort.  The  Indians 
were  unruly,  being  principally  engaged  in  plundering 
the  Frenchmen's  houses  in  the  village.  The  British 
supply  of  ammunition  had  quite  run  out  by  the  evening 
of  the  Qth,  and  McKay  was  seriously  contemplating  a 
retreat,  when  he  was  surprised  to  see  a  white  flag  put 
out  by  the  garrison. 

It  appears  that  the  stock  of  food  had  become  ex- 
hausted in  the  fort,  and  Perkins  had  formed  an  exag- 
gerated idea  of  the  strength  of  the  invaders.  The 
British  guaranteed  that  the  Americans  should  march 
out  of  Fort  Shelby  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning 
of  the  20th,  with  colors  flying  and  with  the  honors  of 
war,  and  that  the  Indians  should  be  prevented  from 
maltreating  them.  This  last  agreement  McKay  found 
it  very  difficult  to  carry  out,  for  the  savages  wished,  as 
usual,  to  massacre  the  prisoners.  To  the  honor  of  the 


British,  it  should  be  recorded  that  they  exercised  great 
vigilance,  and  spared  neither  supplications  nor  threats, 
to  insure  the  safety 
of  their  prisoners, 
whom  they  soon  sent 
down  the  river  to 
the  American  post 
at  St.  Louis. 

When  the  British 
flag  was  run  up  on 
the  stockade,  the 
name  was  changed 
to  Fort  McKay,  in 
honor  of  the  Brit- 
ish leader.  During 
the  long  autumn  and  sue-  "-£ 
ceeding  winter,  the  British  expe- 
rienced their  old  difficulties  with  the 
Indian  allies.  The  warriors  sacked 
the  houses  of  the  French  settlers,  all  ^"ggp*^.- 
over  the  prairie,  and  destroyed  crops  and  J:*  ^^ 
supplies.  Council  after  council  was  held  at  Fort 
McKay,  and  large  bands  of  lazy,  quarrelsome  savages, 
encamped  about  the  fort,  were  fed  and  were  loaded 
with  presents  ;  altogether,  the  occupation  of  Wisconsin 
proved  an  expensive  luxury.  It  was  no  doubt  with 
some  relief  that  the  British  garrison  at  last  learned, 
late  in  May  1815,  of  the  treaty  of  peace  signed  on 
the  previous  24th  of  December,  and  made  arrange- 
ments to  withdraw  up  the  Wisconsin  and  down  the 
Fox,  and  across  the  great  lake  to  Mackinac. 


In  point  of  fact,  the  withdrawal  of  Captain  Bulger,  at 
that  time  in  charge  of  Fort  McKay,  was  in  reality  a 
hasty  and  undignified  retreat  from  his  own  allies.  The 
Indians  had  learned  with  amazement  that  the  British 
palefaces  were  going  to  surrender  to  the  American 
palefaces,  without  showing  fight,  and  simply  because 
somewhere,  far  away  in  another  part  of  the  world,  some 
other  palefaces,  whom  these  Englishmen  had  never 
even  seen,  had  held  a  peace  council  and  buried  the 
hatchet.  This  sort  of  thing  could  not  be  understood  by 
the  savages  encamped  outside  the  walls  of  Fort  McKay, 
save  as  an  evidence  of  rank  cowardice.  They  called  the 
redcoats  a  lot  of  "  old  women,"  became  insolent,  and 
even  threatened  them. 

Captain  Bulger  saw  that  it  would  not  do  to  await  the 
arrival  of  the  American  troops  from  St.  Louis,  so  he 
sent  an  Indian  messenger  with  a  letter  to  the  American 
commander,  telling  him  to  help  himself  to  everything  in 
Fort  McKay.  Then,  only  forty-eight  hours  after  the 
arrival  of  the  peace  news,  he  pulled  down  his  flag  and 
hurried  home  as  fast  as  he  could,  fearful  all  the  way 
that  an  Indian  war  party  might  be  at  his  heels.  Thus 
ignominiously  ended  the  last  British  occupation  of  Wis- 
consin. 


THE   STORY   OF   THE   WISCONSIN    LEAD 
MINES 

IT  was  the  fur  trade  that  first  brought  white  men  to 
Wisconsin.  The  daring  Nicolet  pushed  his  way 
through  the  wilderness,  a  thousand  miles  west  of  the 
little  French  settlement  at  Quebec,  solely  to  introduce 
the  traffic  in  furs  to  our  savages,  and  others  were  not 
long  in  following  him.  Soon  it  was  learned  that  there 
were  lead  mines  in  what  is  now  southwest  Wisconsin. 

It  is  not  probable  that  the  aborigines,  before  the 
coming  of  white  men,  made  any  other  use  of  lead 
than  from  it  to  fashion  a  few  rude  ornaments.  But 
the  French  at  once  recognized  the  great  value  of  this 
mineral,  in  connection  with  the  fur  trade.  They  taught 
the  Indians  how  to  mine  it  in  a  crude  fashion,  and  to 
make  it  into  bullets  for  the  guns  which  they  introduced 
among  them. 

The  French  traders  themselves  mined  a  good  deal  of 
it  for'  their  own  use,  and  shipped  it  in  their  canoes  to 
other  parts  of  the  West,  where  there  were  no  lead 
mines,  but  where  both  white  men  and  Indians  needed 
bullets.  For  in  a  remarkably  short  period  nearly  all 
the  Indians  had  turned  from  their  old  pursuits  of  rais- 
ing maize  and  pumpkins,  and  killing  just  enough  game 
117 


n8 

with  slings  and  arrows  to  supply  themselves  with  skins 
for  their  clothing  and  flesh  for  their  food.  They  had 
now  become  persistent  hunters  for  skins,  which  they 
might  exchange  with  white  men  for  European-made 
guns,  ammunition,  kettles,  spears,  cloths,  and  ornaments. 

Some  of  the  Indians  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
lead  mines  found  it  more  profitable  to  mine  lead  for 
other  hunters,  than  to  hunt ;  hence  we  find  that,  at 
an  early  date,  the  mines  came  to  be  regarded  as  the 
particular  property  of  the  Indians,  a  fact  which  had 
considerable  influence  upon  the  history  of  the  region. 
With  the  French,  most  of  our  Wisconsin  Indians  were 
quite  friendly.  The  French  were  kind  and  obliging, 
often  married  and  settled  among  them,  and  had  no 
thought  of  driving  them  away.  They  throve  upon  the 
fur  trade  with  the  Indians,  and  in  general  did  not  care 
to  become  farmers.  The  English  and  the  Americans, 
on  the  contrary,  felt  a  contempt  for  the  savages,  and 
did  not  disguise  it ;  the  aim  of  the  Americans,  in  par- 
ticular, was  gradually  to  clear  the  forest,  to  make  farms, 
and  to  build  villages.  In  the  American  scheme  of  civ- 
ilization the  Indian  had  no  part.  Therefore  we  find 
that  Frenchmen  were  quite  free  to  work  the  lead  mines 
in  company  with  the  savages  ;  but  the  Anglo-Saxons, 
when  they  arrived  on  the  scene,  were  obliged  to  fight 
for  this  right.  In  the  end  they  banished  the  Indians 
from  the  "  diggings." 

Marquette  and  Joliet  had  heard  of  the  lead  mines, 
and  of  the  Frenchmen  working  at  them,  when  they  made 
their  famous  canoe  trip  through  Wisconsin,  in  1673. 
Through  the  rest  of  the  seventeenth  century,  wherever 


we  pick  up  any  French  books  of  travel  in  these  regions, 
or  any  maps  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  country,  we  are 
sure  to  find  frequent,  though  rather  vague,  mention  of 
the  lead  mines. 

The  first  official  exploration  of  them  appears  to  have 
been  made  in  1693  by  Le  Sueur,  the  French  military 
commandant  at  Chequamegon  Bay,  on  Lake  Superior. 
He  was  so  impressed  by  the  "  mines  of  lead,  copper, 
and  blue  and  green  earth  "  which  he  found  all  along 
the  banks  of  the  Upper  Mississippi,  that  he  went  to 
France  to  tell  the  king  about  his  great  discoveries,  and 
seek  permission  to  work  them.  It  was  forbidden  to 
do  anything  in  New  France  without  the  consent  of  the 
great  French  king,  although  the  free  and  independent 
fur  traders  did  very  much  as  they  pleased  out  here  in 
the  wilderness.  But  Le  Sueur  was  a  soldier,  and  had 
to  ask  permission.  Obtaining  it,  he  returned  at  great 
expense  with  thirty  miners,  who  proceeded  up  the 
Mississippi  from  New  Orleans;  but  somehow  nothing 
came  of  these  extensive  preparations. 

Several  French  speculators,  in  succeeding  years, 
thought  to  make  money  out  of  supposed  mines  of  gold, 
silver,  lead,  and  copper  along  the  upper  waters  of  the 
Mississippi.  Some  of  them  came  over  from  France 
with  bands  of  miners  and  little  companies  of  soldiers 
to  guard  them ;  but,  like  Le  Sueur,  they  spent  most  of 
their  time  and  money  in  exploration,  not  content  with 
those  lead  mines  that  were  well  known  to  exist,  and 
invariably  left  the  country  in  disgust,  their  money  and 
patience  exhausted.  Now  and  then  a  more  practical 
man  came  quietly  upon  the  scene,  and  seemed  well 


120 

satisfied  with  lead  when  he  could  not  find  gold  ;  most 
of  such  miners  were  French,  but  a  few  were  Spanish, 
for  Spain  then  owned  all  the  country  lying  westward 
of  the  Mississippi  River. 

Occasionally  the  French  commandant  at  Mackinac 
or  Detroit  would  come  to  the  mines,  and  with  the  aid 
of  his  soldiers  and  the  Indians,  get  out  a  considerable 
quantity  of  the  ore,  and  take  it  home  with  him  in  his 
fleet  of  canoes ;  or  a  fur  trader  would  do  the  same,  for 
the  purposes  of  his  own  trade  with  the  savages.  The 
little  French  village  of  Ste.  Genevieve,  near  St.  Louis, 
had  become,  by  the  opening  of  our  Revolutionary  War, 
a  considerable  lead  market,  from  which  shipments  were 
made  in  flatboats  and  bateaux  down  the  Mississippi  to 
New  Orleans,  or  up  the  Ohio  to  Pittsburg.  Lead  was, 
next  to  peltries,  the  most  important  export  of  the  Upper 
Mississippi  region,  and  throughout  the  West  served  as 
currency. 

During  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  British  were  at 
first  in  command  of  the  upper  reaches  of  the  great 
river,  and  guarded  jealously  the  approach  to  the  lead 
mines,  for  bullets  were  necessary  to  the  success  of  the 
fast  growing  Kentucky  settlements  ;  American  military 
operations  against  the  little  British  garrisons  at  Vin- 
cennes,  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia,  and  Detroit  would  be 
powerless  without  lead.  Gradually  the  influence  of 
the  American  fur  trade  grew  among  the  Indians,  and 
it  was  not  long  before  the  Americans  in  the  West  were 
able  to  obtain  through  them  all  the  lead  they  wanted. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  war,  Julien  Dubuque,  a  very 
energetic  French  miner,  bought  up  large  claims  from 


121 

the  Spaniards,  in  Missouri  and  Iowa,  and  for  about  a 
quarter  of  a  century  was  the  principal  man  in  the  lead 
region.  He  was  remarkably  successful  in  dealing  with 
the  Indians,  whom  he  employed  to  do  the  principal 
work.  His  mining  and  trading  operations  were  not 
confined  to  the  Spanish  side  of  the  river,  but  were  car- 
ried on  in  American  territory  as  well,  and  his  influence 
with  the  savages  for  a  time  prevented  American  miners 
and  fur  traders  from  obtaining  a  foothold. 

When  at  last  (1804)  the  United  States  obtained  pos- 
session of  the  lands  west  of  the  Mississippi,  numerous 
enterprising  Americans  forced  their  way  into  the  lead 
district  They  managed  to  mine  a  good  deal  of  the 
metal,  here  and  there,  but  frequently  met  with  armed 
opposition  from  the  Indians.  It  was  fifteen  years 
before  the  Americans  equaled  the  French  Canadians 
in  number.  In  1819,  the  Indian  claims  to  the  mining 
country  having  at  last  been  purchased  by  the  federal 
government,  there  was  a  general  inrush  of  Americans. 
Among  the  earliest  and  most  prominent  of  these  was 
James  W.  Shull,  the  founder  of  Shullsburg,  in  Iowa 
county.  Another  man  of  note  was  Colonel  James  John- 
son, of  Kentucky,  who  brought  negro  slaves  into  the 
region,  to  do  his  heaviest  labor,  and  maintained  a  fleet 
of  flatboats  to  carry  lead  ore  from  Galena  River  to 
St.  Louis,  New  Orleans,  and  Pittsburg. 

At  first  the  operations  of  Johnson,  Shull,  and  others 
had  to  be  carried  on  under  military  protection ;  for 
the  Indians,  although  they  had  sold  their  claims,  per- 
sisted in  annoying  the  newcomers,  being  urged  on  by 
the  French  miners  and  traders  who  were  still  numer- 


122 

ous  in  the  mining  country.  But  so  soon  as  the  news 
spread  that  a  large  trade  in  lead  was  fast  springing 
up,  other  Americans  began  to  pour  in ;  mining  claims 
were  entered  in  great  numbers,  a  federal  land  office  was 
opened,  and  by  1826  two  thousand  men,  including  negro 
slaves  brought  in  by  Kentucky  and  Missouri  operators, 
were  engaged  in  and  about  the  mines.  The  follow- 
ing year  the  town  of  Galena  was  founded,  and  in  1829 
there  was  a  stampede  thither. 

Henceforth,  for  many  years,  the  lead  trade  of  south- 
western Wisconsin,  northwestern  Illinois,  and  parts  of 
Missouri  and  Iowa  was  the  chief  interest  in  the  West. 
By  this  time  the  fur  trade  had  almost  died  out,  and 
the  old  French  Canadian  element  had  become  but  a 
small  proportion  of  the  population  of  the  Mississippi 
valley.  In  those  days,  Galena,  Mineral  Point,  and 
other  lead  mining  towns  were  of  much  more  importance 
than  Chicago  or  Milwaukee,  and  their  citizens  enter- 
tained high  hopes  of  the  future.  The  lead  trade  with 
St.  Louis  and  New  Orleans  was  very  large ;  but  the 
East  also  wanted  the  lead,  and  the  air  was  filled  with 
projects  to  secure  routes  by  which  lead  might  be  car- 
ried to  vessels  plying  on  the  Great  Lakes,  which  could 
transport  it  to  Buffalo  and  other  far  away  ports. 

For  a  time  the  most  popular  of  these  projects  was 
the  old  fur  trade  route  of  the  Wisconsin  and  Fox  rivers. 
A  canal  was  dug  along  the  famous  carrying  trail  at 
Portage,  and  the  federal  government  was  induced  to 
deepen  Fox  River,  which  is  naturally  very  shallow,  and 
to  attempt  to  create  a  permanent  channel  in  the  Wis- 
consin River.  But,  although  much  money  has  been 


123 


spent  on  these  schemes,  from  that  day  to  this,  the  Fox- 
Wisconsin  route  is  still  impracticable  save  to  boats  of 
exceptionally  light  draft;  and  in  our  time  the  project 
of  connecting  the  Mississippi  River  with  Lake  Michi- 
gan, by  the  way  of  Portage  and  Green  Bay,  is  almost 
wholly  abandoned.  Another  scheme  was  the  proposed 
Milwaukee  and  Rock  River  canal,  by  which  Milwaukee 
was  to  be  connected  with  the  Rock  River,  which  joins 
the  Mississippi  at  Rock  Island;  but  this  plan  died  a 
still  earlier  death.  It  was  the  struggle  to  connect  the 
port  of  Milwaukee  with  the  lead  region  that 
finally  led  to  the  building  of  the  railroad 
between  that  city  and  Prairie  du  Chien.  ! 

More  immediately  effective  for  the 
benefit  of  the  lead  trade,  was  the        __- 


r  i 

opening  of   a  wagon   road        ^.-^rr^3^5 
from  the  lead  mining 


towns,  through  Madison,  to  Milwaukee,  along  which 
great  canvas-covered  caravans  of  ore-laden  "  prairie 
schooners "  toiled  slowly  from  the  mines  to  the  Lake 
Michigan  docks,  a  distance  of  about  a  hundred  and 


124 

fifty  miles.  Other  roads  led  to  Galena  and  Prairie 
du  Chien,  where  the  Mississippi  River  boats  awaited 
similar  fleets  of  "  schooners "  from  the  interior.  A 
good  deal  of  the  lead  was  sent  by  similar  conveyances 
to  Helena,  a  little  village  on  the  Wisconsin  River, 
where  a  shot  tower  had  been  built  against  the  face  of  a 
high  cliff ;  from  here,  shallow-draft  boats  took  the  shot 
to  Green  Bay,  by  way  of  the  Portage  Canal  and  Fox 
River,  or  descended  the  Wisconsin  to  Prairie  du  Chien. 

From  various  causes,  the  lead  trade  of  the  Upper 
Mississippi  region  had  sadly  declined  by  1857.  Among 
these  causes  was  the  finding  of  gold  in  California 
(1849),  which  attracted  large  numbers  of  the  miners 
to  a  more  profitable  field;  again,  the  surface  or  shal- 
low diggings  having  been  exhausted,  much  more  capi- 
tal was  required  to  operate  in  the  lower  levels ;  more 
serious  was  the  lack  of  sufficient  transportation  facili- 
ties, and  these  did  not  come  until  the  great  silver 
mines  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  had  been  opened,  lead 
being  thenceforth  more  profitably  produced  in  connec- 
tion with  silver. 

The  effect  of  the  lead  industry  upon  the  development 
of  Wisconsin  was  important.  Many  years  before  farm- 
ers would,  naturally  have  sought  southern  Wisconsin  in 
their  pushing  westward  for  fresh  lands,  the  opening  of 
the  mines  brought  thither  a  large  and  energetic  indus- 
trial population,  and  a  considerable  capital,  and  awak- 
ened popular  interest  in  land  and  water  transportation 
routes. 


THE    WINNEBAGO   WAR 

THE  world  over,  white  men,  representing  a  higher 
type  of  civilization,  have  wrested,  or  are  still  wrest- 
ing, the  land  from  the  original  savage  occupants.  This 
seems  to  be  inevitable.  It  is  one  of  the  means  by 
which  civilization  is  being  extended  over  the  entire 
globe.  We  glory  in  the  progress  of  civilization  ;  but  we 
are  apt  to  ignore  the  hardship  which  this  brings  to  the 
aborigines.  While  not  relaxing  our  endeavor  to  plant 
the  world  with  progressive  men  who  shall  make  the 
most  of  life,  we  should  see  to  it  that  the  savage  races 
are  pushed  to  the  wall  with  as  kindly  and  forbearing  a 
hand  as  possible ;  that  we  apply  to  them  humane 
methods,  and  give  them  credit  for  possessing  the  senti- 
ments of  men  who,  like  us,  dearly  love  their  old  homes, 
and  are  willing  to  fight  for  them.  These  sentiments 
have  certainly  not  often  been  applied  in  the  past,  by 
our  Anglo-Saxon  race,  to  the  Indians  of  North  America. 
We  have  failed  to  appreciate  that  the  Indian,  in  being 
driven  from  his  lands,  has  retaliated  from  motives  of 
patriotism.  His  methods  of  fighting  are  often  cruel 
and  treacherous ;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  he  is 
in  a  stage  of  development  akin  to  that  of  the  child,  and 
that  white  men  upon  the  frontier  have  often  been  quite 
as  cruel  and  treacherous  toward  the  Indian  as  he  was 
I25 


126 

toward  them,  for  such  are  ever  the  methods  of  the  weak 
and  the  primitive.  The  Indian  is  blamed  for  his  custom 
of  wreaking  vengeance  upon  all  white  men,  when  but 
an  individual  has  injured  him ;  yet,  on  the  border,  it  has 
always  been  seen  that  white  men  have  retaliated  on  the 
Indians  in  exactly  the  same  spirit.  "The  only  good 
Indian  is  a  dead  Indian,"  has  been  their  motto,  the 
offense  of  one  Indian  being  considered  the  offense  of 
all.  Our  dealings  with  the  red  men,  both  as  individuals 
and  as  a  nation,  have,  for  over  a  hundred  years,  often 
been  such  as  we  should  blush  for.  We  are  doing  bet- 
ter now  than  formerly ;  but  our  treatment  of  the  weak 
and  unfortunate  aborigines  is  still  far  from  being  to 
our  credit. 

The  story  of  the  Winnebago  War,  in  Wisconsin,  is 
illustrative  of  the  old-time  method  of  treating  our  bar- 
baric predecessors.  No  doubt  it  would  have  been  better 
if  the  United  States  had,  from  the  first,  held  all  the 
Indians  to  be  subjects,  and  forced  them  to  obey  our 
laws.  But  the  tribes  were  considered  in  theory  to  be 
distinct  nations,  over  whom  we  exercised  supervision, 
and  with  whom  we  held  treaties.  This  at  first  seemed 
necessary,  owing  to  the  patriarchal  system  among  the 
Indians,  by  which  heads  of  families  or  clans  are  sup- 
posed to  control  the  younger  members,  all  affairs 
being  decided  upon  in  councils,  in  which  these  wise  old 
men  participate.  It  was  thought  that,  through  the 
chiefs,  binding  agreements  could  be  made  with  entire 
tribes.  It  was  not  then  generally  understood  that  each 
Indian  is,  according  to  the  customs  of  those  people, 
really  a  law  unto  himself ;  that  the  chiefs,  in  signing  a 


127 

treaty,  are  seldom  representative  in  the  sense  that  we 
use  the  word,  and  that  they  generally  represent  no  one 
but  themselves ;  that  the  only  way  in  which  they  can 
commit  their  tribes  is  through  the  respect  or  fear  which 
they  may  foster  in  the  minds  of  their  followers. 

In  the  month  of  August,  1825,  when  Wisconsin  was 
still  a  part  of  Michigan  Territory,  there  was  a  treaty 
signed  at  Prairie  du  Chien  between  the  United  States 
and  the  Indians  of  what  are  now  Illinois,  Wisconsin, 
and  Minnesota.  The  treaty  set  boundaries  between  the 
quarrelsome  tribes,  and  agreed  on  a  general  peace  upon 
the  border.  Like  most  Indian  treaties,  this  document 
was  drawn  up  by  the  officers  of  the  general  govern- 
ment ;  and  the  chiefs,  knowing  little  of  its  contents, 
were  simply  invited  to  sign  their  names  to  it.  They 
signed  as  requested,  but  went  home  in  bad  temper, 
because  the  American  commissioners  would  not  make 
them  costly  presents  of  guns,  ammunition,  beads,  hatch- 
ets, cloths,  and  rum,  as  the  British  in  Canada  always 
did ;  and  the  savages  were  not  even  allowed  to  cele- 
brate the  treaty  by  a  roistering  feast.  The  Americans, 
from  their  cold,  businesslike  conduct,  impressed  the 
Indians  as  being  "stingy  old  women." 

Nobody  on  the  frontier,  the  following  winter,  seemed 
to  pay  the  slightest  attention  to  the  terms  of  the  treaty. 
The  Sioux,  who  lived  west  of  the  Mississippi,  the  Win- 
nebagoes  in  southern  and  western  Wisconsin,  and  the 
Chippewas  in  the  north,  quarreled  with  one  another  and 
scalped  one  another  as  freely  as  ever ;  while  French 
traders,  in  British  employ,  stirred  up  the  red  men,  and 
told  them  that  Great  Britain  would  soon  have  the  whole 


128 


country  back  again.  The  Winnebagoes,  in  particular, 
were  irritated  because  two  of  their  braves  had  been 
imprisoned  for  thieving,  at  Fort  Crawford,  in  Prairie 
du  Chien.  They  held  numerous  councils  in  the  woods, 
and  resolved  to  stand  by  the  British  when  the  war 
should  break  out.  In  the  midst  of  this  uneasiness, 
the  troops  at  Fort  Crawford  were  suddenly  withdrawn 
to  Fort  Snelling,  on  the  Upper  Mississippi  River,  near 
where  St.  Paul  now  is.  This  was  supposed  by  the 
Indians  to  mean  that  the  American  soldiers  were  afraid 
of  them. 

The  spring  of  1827  arrived.  A  half-breed  named 
Methode  was  making  maple  sugar  upon  the  Yellow 
River,  in  Iowa,  a  dozen  miles  north  of  Prairie  du  Chien. 
With  him  were  his  wife  and  five  children  ;  all  were  set 
upon  by  some  Winnebagoes  and  killed,  scalped,  and 
burned.  Naturally  there  was  an  uproar  all  along  the 
Upper  Mississippi.  Excitement  was  at  its  height,  when 
word  was  brought  in  by  Sioux  visitors  to  the  village  of 
Red  Bird,  a  petty  Winnebago  chief,  that  the  two  men 
of  his  tribe  who  had  been  imprisoned  in  Fort  Crawford 
had  been  hung  when  the  troops  reached  Fort  Snelling. 
The  wily  Sioux  suggested  vengeance.  The  Winnebago 
code  was  two  lives  for  one.  Inflamed  with  rage,  Red 
Bird  set  out  at  once  upon  the  warpath  to  take  four 
white  scalps. 

Meanwhile  the  clouds  were  gathering  for  a  general 
storm.  The  American  Indian  agent  at  Prairie  du  Chien, 
with  singular  indiscretion,  was  not  treating  his  Winne- 
bago visitors  with  kindness.  English  and  French  fur 
traders  were,  on  behalf  of  Great  Britain,  making  liberal 


129 


promises  for  the  future.  Winnebagoes  were  being 
brutally  driven  from  the  lead  mines  by  the  white  min- 
ers, who  were  now  swarming  into  southwest  Wisconsin. 
The  Sioux  along  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  in 
Minnesota,  were  encouraging  the  Winnebagoes  to  re- 
volt ;  and  were  displaying  a  bad  temper 
toward  Americans,  whom  they  thought 
cowardly  because  apparently  unwilling 
to  use  military  force  to  keep  the  In- 
dians in  order. 

One  day  in  June,  Red  Bird,  a  friend 
named  Wekau,  and  two  other  Winne- 
bagoes, appeared  at  the  door  of  a  log 
cabin  owned  by  Registre  Gagnier,  a 
French  settler  living  on  the  edge  of 
Prairie  du  Chien  village.  Gagnier  was 
an  old  friend  of  Red  Bird,  and  invited 
the  four  Indians  in  to  take  dinner  with 
him  and  his  family.  For  several  hours 
the  guests  stayed,  eating  and  smoking 
in  apparent  good  humor,  until  at  last 
their  chance  came.  Gagnier  and  his 
serving  man,  Lipcap,  were  instantly  shot 
down  ;  an  infant  of  eighteen  months  was 
torn  from  the  arms  of  Madame  Gagnier,  stabbed 
and  -scalped  before  her  eyes,  and  thrown  to  the  floor 
as  dead ;  but  the  woman  herself  with  her  little  boy, 
ten  years  of  age,  escaped  to  the  woods  and  gave  the 
alarm  to  the  neighbors.  The  Indians  slunk  into  the 
forest  and  disappeared.  The  villagers  buried  Gagnier 
and  Lipcap,  and,  finding  the  infant  girl  alive,  restored 

STO.   OF   BADGER   STA.    -Q 


130 

her  to  her  mother.  Curiously  enough,  the  scalped 
child  recovered  and  grew  to  robust  womanhood. 

According  to  the  Winnebago  code,  four  white  scalps 
must  be  taken  in  return  for  the  two  Indians  supposed 
to  have  been  killed  at  Fort  Snelling.  Red  Bird  had 
now  secured  three,  those  of  Gagnier,  Lipcap,  and  the 
infant ;  a  fourth  was  necessary  before  he  could  properly 
return  to  his  people  in  the  capacity  of  an  avenger,  the 
proudest  title  which  an  Indian  can  bear.  How  he 
obtained  these  scalps  was,  to  the  mind  of  his  race, 
unimportant ;  the  one  idea  was  to  get  them. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  third  day  after  the  massacre, 
Red  Bird  and  his  friends  were  visiting  at  a  camp  of 
their  people,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Bad  Ax  River,  some 
forty  miles  north  of  Prairie  du  Chien.  A  drunken 
feast  was  in  progress,  in  honor  of  the  scalp  taking, 
when  two  keel  boats  appeared  on  their  way  down  the 
Mississippi  from  Fort  Snelling  to  St.  Louis.  The  Sioux, 
at  what  is  now  Winona,  had  threatened  the  crews,  but 
had  not  attempted  to  harm  them.  The  Winnebagoes 
now  appeared  on  the  bank  and  raised  the  war  whoop, 
but  the  crew  of  the  foremost  boat  thought  it  only 
bluster,  so  in  a  spirit  of  bravado  ran  their  craft  toward 
shore.  When  it  was  within  thirty  yards  of  the  bank, 
the  Indians,  led  by  Red  Bird,  poured  a  volley  of  rifle 
balls  into  the  boat.  The  crew  were  well  armed,  and, 
rushing  below,  answered  by  shooting  through  the  port- 
holes. The  boat  ran  on  a  bar,  and  a  sharp  fire  lasted 
through  three  hours,  until  dusk,  when  the  craft  was 
finally  worked  off  the  bar,  and  dropped  downstream  in 
the  dark.  Although  seven  hundred  bullets  penetrated 


the  hull,  only  two  of  the  crew  were  killed  outright,  two 
others  dying  later  from  wounds,  and  two  others  were 
slightly  wounded.  The  Indians  lost  seven  killed  and 
fourteen  wounded. 

The  "  battle  of  the  keel  boats  "  was  the  signal  for 
military  activity.  In  July  a  battalion  of  troops  from 
Fort  Snelling  came  down  to  Prairie  du  Chien ;  and  a 
little  later  a  full  regiment  from  St.  Louis  followed. 
General  Henry  Atkinson  was  in  command,  and  early 
in  August  he  ordered -Major  William  Whistler,  then  in 
charge  of  Fort  Howard,  to  proceed  up  Fox  River  with 
a  company  of  troops,  in  search  of  the  fugitives  Red 
Bird  and  Wekau.  At  a  council  held  with  the  Winne- 
bagoes,  at  Butte  des  Morts,  the  chiefs  were  notified 
that  nothing  short  of  the  surrender  of  the  leaders  of 
the  disturbance  would  satisfy  the  government  for  the 
attack  on  the  boats;  were  they  not  delivered  up,  the 
entire  tribe  should  be  hunted  like  wild  animals. 

Great  consternation  prevailed  among  the  tribesmen, 
as  the  runners  sent  out  from  the  Butte  des  Morts 
council  carried  the  terrible  threat  to  all  the  camps  of 
the  Winnebagoes,  in  the  deep  forests,  in  the  pleasant 
oak  groves,  and  upon  the  broad  prairies  throughout 
southern  Wisconsin.  Whistler  had  reached  the  ridge 
flanking  the  old  portage  trail  between  the  Fox  and 
Wisconsin  rivers,  but  had  not  fully  completed  the 
arrangements  of  his  camp  when  an  Indian  runner  ap- 
peared in  hot  haste,  saying  that  Red  Bird  and  Wekau 
would  surrender  themselves  at  three  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  of  the  following  day,  that  the  tribe  might  be 
saved. 


132 

Whistler  and  his  officers,  as  true  soldiers,  were 
prompt  to  appreciate  bravery.  They  were  broad 
enough  to  judge  these  savages  by  the  standards  of 
savagery,  not  by  those  of  a  civilization  from  which 
the  Indian  is  removed  by  centuries  of  human  progress. 
They  knew  full  well  that  the  culprits  were  but  carrying 
out  the  law  of  their  race  in  seeking  white  scalps  in 
vengeance  for  the  Winnebagoes  supposed  to  have  been 
slain  at  Fort  Snelling.  Whistler  knew  that  the  Indians 
considered  Red  Bird  and  Wekau  as  heroes,  and  could 
feel  no  pangs  of  conscience,  because  treachery  toward 
enemies  was  the  customary  method  of  Indian  warfare. 
Realizing  these  facts,  the  American  officers  recognized 
that  it  required  a  fine  type  of  heroism  on  the  part  of 
these  simple  natives  thus  to  offer  themselves  up  to 
probable  death,  to  redeem  their  tribe  from  destruction. 

For  this  reason  the  soldiers  were  brought  out  on 
parade;  and  when,  prompt  to  the  hour  named,  Red 
Bird  and  Wekau,  accompanied  by  a  party  of  their 
friends,  came  marching  into  camp,  clad  in  ceremonial 
dress,  and  singing  their  death  songs,  they  were  received 
with  military  honors.  The  native  ceremony  of  surren- 
der was  highly  impressive.  Red  Bird  conducted  him- 
self with  a  dignity  which  won  the  admiration  of  all. 
Wekau,  on  the  contrary,  was  an  indifferent  looking 
fellow,  and  commanded  little  respect. 

Red  Bird  made  but  one  request,  that,  although  sen- 
tenced to  death,  he  should  not  be  placed  in  chains. 
This  was  granted  ;  and  while,  during  his  subsequent 
imprisonment  at  Prairie  du  Chien,  he  had  frequent  op- 
portunities to  escape,  he  declined  to  take  advantage  of 


133 


them.     A  few  months  later  he  fell  an  easy  victim 
to  an  epidemic  then  raging   in   the   village,    thus 
relieving  the    government   from    embarrassment, 
for  it  was    felt  that  he    was    altogether 
too   good   an    Indian    to    hang;    indeed, 
his  execution  might  have  brought  on 
a  general  border  war. 

The  murderers  of  Methode  were 
also  apprehended  and  given 
a  death  sentence  ;  but  upon 
the  Winnebagoes  promis- 
ing to  relinquish  forever 
their  hold  upon  the  lead 
mines  of  southwestern 
Wisconsin  and  northwest- 
ern Illinois,  President 
Adams  pardoned  all  the 
prisoners  then  living.  The 
following  year  (1828),  a  fort 
was  erected  at  the  Fox-Wisconsin  portage,  near  the 
scene  of  Red  Bird's  surrender ;  being  in  the  heart  of 
that  tribe's  territory,  it  was  called  Fort  Winnebago. 
Thereafter  the  Winnebagoes  were  kept  in  entire  sub- 
jection. Indeed,  the  three  forts,  Howard  at  Green 
Bay,  Winnebago  at  Portage,  and  Crawford  at  Prairie 
du  Chien,  now  gave  the  United  States,  for  the  first 
time,  firm  grasp  upon  the  whole  of  what  is  now  Wis- 
consin. 


THE   BLACK   HAWK   WAR 

IN  November,  1804,  the  Sac  and  Fox  Indians,  in 
return  for  a  paltry  annuity  of  a  thousand  dollars, 
ceded  to  the  United  States  fifty  million  acres  of  land 
in  eastern  Missouri,  northwestern  Illinois,  and  south- 
western Wisconsin.  There  was  an  unfortunate  clause 
in  this  compact,  which  quite  unexpectedly  became  one 
of  the  chief  causes  of  the  Black  Hawk  War  of  1832; 
instead  of  obliging  the  Indians  at  once  to  vacate  the 
ceded  territory,  it  was  stipulated  that,  "  as  long  as  the 
lands  which  are  now  ceded  to  the  United  States  re- 
main their  property,  the  Indians  belonging  to  said 
tribes  shall  enjoy  the  privilege  of  living  and  hunting 
on  them." 

Within  the  limits  of  the  cession  was  the  chief  seat 
of  Sac  power,  a  village  lying  on  the  north  side  of 
Rock  River,  three  miles  above  its  mouth.  It  was 
picturesquely  situated  on  fertile  ground,  contained  the 
principal  cemetery  of  the  tribe,  and  was  inhabited  by 
about  five  hundred  families,  being  one  of  the  largest 
Indian  towns  on  the  continent. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the 
principal  character  in  this  village  was  Black  Hawk, 
who  was  born  here  in  1767.  Black  Hawk  was  neither 
'34 


135 


an  hereditary  nor  an  elected  chief,  but  was,  by  com- 
mon consent,  the  village  headman.  He  was  a  rest- 
less, ambitious,  handsome  savage ;  was  possessed  of 
some  of  the  qualities  of  successful  leadership,  was 
much  of  a  demagogue,  and  aroused  the  passions  of 
his  people  by  appeals  to  their  prejudices  and  super- 
stitions. It  is  probable  that  he  was  never,  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  this  policy,  dis- 
honest in  his  motives.  A 
too  confiding  disposition 
was  ever  leading  his  judg- 
ment astray  ;  he  was  read- 
ily duped  by  those  who, 
white  or  red,  were  inter- 
ested in  deceiving  him. 
The  effect  of  his  daily 
communication  with  the 
Americans  was  often  to 
shock  rudely  his  high 
sense  of  honor;  while  the 
studied  courtesy  accorded 
him  upon  his  annual  beg- 
ging visit  to  the  British  military  agent  at  Maiden,  in 
Canada,  contrasted  strangely,  in  his  eyes,  with  his 
experiences  with  many  of  the  inhabitants  on  the  Illi- 
nois-border. 

At  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  between  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States  in  1812,  Black  Hawk  naturally 
allied  himself  with  Tecumseh  and  the  British.  After 
burying  the  hatchet,  he  settled  down  into  the  custom- 
ary routine  of  savage  life,  hunting  in  winter  and  loafing 


BLACK   HAWK 


136 

about  his  village  in  summer,  improvidently  existing 
from  hand  to  mouth,  although  surrounded  with  abun- 
dance. Occasionally  he  varied  the  monotony  by  visits 
to  Maiden,  whence  he  would  return  laden  with  pro- 
visions, arms,  ammunition,  and  trinkets,  his  stock  of 
vanity  increased  by  wily  flattery,  and  his  bitterness 
against  the  Americans  correspondingly  intensified.  It 
is  not  at  all  surprising  that  he  hated  the  Americans. 
They  brought  him  naught  but  evil.  The  even  tenor 
of  his  life  was  continually  being  disturbed  by  them  ; 
and  a  cruel  and  causeless  beating  which  some  white 
settlers  gave  him,  in  the  winter  of  1822-23,  was  an 
insult  which  he  treasured  up  against  the  entire  Amer- 
ican people. 

In  the  summer  of  1823,  squatters,  covetous  of  the 
rich  fields  cultivated  by  the  "  British  band,"  as  Black 
Hawk's  people  were  often  called,  began  to  take  pos- 
session of  them.  The  treaty  of  1804  had  guaranteed 
to  the  Indians  the  use  of  the  ceded  territory  so  long 
as  the  lands  remained  the  property  of  the  United 
States  and  were  not  sold  to  individuals.  The  frontier 
line  of  homestead  settlement  was  still  fifty  or  sixty 
miles  to  the  east ;  the  country  between  had  not  yet 
been  surveyed,  and  much  of  it  not  explored.  The 
squatters  had  no  rights  in  this  territory,  and  it  was 
clearly  the  duty  of  the  general  government  to  pro- 
tect the  Indians  within  it  so  long  as  no  sales  were 
made. 

The  Sacs  would  not  have  complained  had  the  squat- 
ters settled  in  other  portions  of  the  tract,  and  not 
sought  to  steal  the  village  which  was  their  birthplace 


137 

and  contained  the  cemetery  of  their  tribe.  There  were 
outrages  of  the  most  flagrant  nature.  Indian  cornfields 
were  fenced  in  by  the  intruders,  squaws  and  children 
were  whipped  for  venturing  beyond  the  bounds  thus 
set,  lodges  were  burned  over  the  heads  of  the  occu- 
pants. A  reign  of  terror  ensued,  in  which  the  fre- 
quent remonstrances  of  Black  Hawk  to  the  white 
authorities  were  in  vain.  Year  by  year  the  evil  grew. 
When  the  Indians  returned  each  spring  from  the 
winter's  hunt,  they  found  their  village  more  of  a 
wreck  than  when  they  had  left  it  in  the  fall.  It  is 
surprising,  in  view  of  their  native  love  of  revenge, 
that  they  acted  so  peaceably  while  the  victims  of 
such  harsh  treatment. 

Returning  to  his  village  in  the  spring  of  1831,  after  a 
gloomy  and  profitless  winter's  hunt,  Black  Hawk  was 
fiercely  warned  away  by  the  whites ;  but,  in  a  firm  and 
dignified  manner,  he  notified  the  settlers  that,  if  they 
did  not  themselves  remove,  he  should  use  force.  This 
announcement  was  construed  by  the  whites  as  a  threat 
against  their  lives.  Petitions  and  messages  were  show- 
ered in  by  them  upon  Governor  John  Reynolds,  of  Illi- 
nois, setting  forth  the  situation  in  exaggerated  terms 
that  would  be  amusing,  were  it  not  that  they  were  the 
prelude  to  one  of  the  darkest  tragedies  in  the  history  of 
our  Western  border. 

The  governor  caught  the  spirit  of  the  occasion,  and 
at  once  issued  a  flaming  proclamation  calling  out  a 
mounted  volunteer  force  to  "  repel  the  invasion  of  the 
British  band."  These  volunteers,  sixteen  hundred 
strong,  cooperated  with  ten  companies  of  regulars  in  a 


138 

demonstration  before  Black  Hawk's  village  on  the 
25th  of  June.  During  that  night  the  Indians,  in  the 
face  of  this  superior  force,  quietly  withdrew  to  the  west 
bank  of  the  Mississippi,  whither  they  had  previously 
been  ordered.  On  the  3Oth  they  signed  a  treaty  of  ca- 
pitulation and  peace,  solemnly  agreeing  never  to  return 
to  the  east  side  of  the  river  without  express  permission 
of  the  United  States  government. 

The  rest  of  the  summer  was  spent  by  the  evicted 
savages  in  a  state  of  misery.  It  being  now  too  late  to 
raise  another  crop  of  corn  and  beans,  they  suffered 
for  want  of  the  actual  necessaries  of  life.  White  Cloud, 
the  eloquent  and  crafty  Prophet  of  the  Winnebagoes, 
was  Black  Hawk's  evil  genius.  He  was  half  Sac  and 
half  Winnebago,  a  hater  of  the  whites,  an  inveterate 
mischief  maker,  and,  being  a  "medicine  man,"  pos- 
sessed much  influence  over  both  tribes.  He  was  at  the 
head  of  a  Winnebago  village  some  thirty-five  miles 
above  the  mouth  of  the  Rock,  on  the  east  side  of  the 
Mississippi ;  and  to  this  village  he  invited  Black  Hawk, 
advising  him  to  raise  a  crop  of  corn  there,  with  the 
assurance  that  in  the  autumn  the  Winnebagoes  and 
Pottawattomies  would  join  him  in  a  general  movement 
against  the  whites  in  the  valley  of  the  Rock. 

Relying  on  these  rose-colored  promises,  Black  Hawk 
spent  the  winter  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi, 
recruiting  his  band,  and  on  the  6th  of  April,  1832, 
crossed  the  great  river  at  Yellow  Banks,  below  the 
mouth  of  the  Rock.  Thus  he  invaded  the  State  of 
Illinois,  in  the  face  of  his  solemn  treaty  of  the  year 
before.  With  him  were  his  second  in  command,  Nea- 


139 

pope,  a  wily  scoundrel,  who  was  White  Cloud's  tool, 
and  about  five  hundred  Sac  warriors  with  their  women 
and  children,  and  all  their  belongings.  Their  design 
was  to  carry  out  the  advice  of  the  Prophet,  in  regard 
to  the  corn  planting,  and  if  possible  to  take  'up  the 
hatchet  in  the  autumn. 

But  it  became  evident  to  Black  Hawk,  before  he 
reached  the  Prophet's  town,  that  the  main  body  of  the 
Pottawattomies,  now  controlled  by  the  peace  loving 
Chief  Shaubena,  did  not  intend  to  go  to  war ;  and  that 
the  rascally  Winnebagoes,  while  cajoling  him,  were 
preparing  as  usual  to  play  double.  He  tells  us  in  his 
autobiography  that,  crestfallen,  he  was  planning  to  re- 
turn peacefully  to  the  west  side  of  the  Mississippi,  when 
of  a  sudden  he  became  aware  that  the  whites  had  raised 
an  army  against  him,  and  he  was  confronted  with  a  war 
not  in  the  time  and  manner  of  his  asking. 

The  news  of  his  second  invasion  had  spread  like  wild- 
fire throughout  the  Illinois  and  Wisconsin  settlements. 
The  United  States  was  appealed  to  for  a  regiment  of 
troops ;  and  meanwhile,  under  another  fiery  proclama- 
tion from  the  governor  of  Illinois,  an  army  of  eighteen 
hundred  militiamen  was  quickly  mustered.  Amid  in- 
tense popular  excitement,  during  which  many  settlers 
fled  from  the  country,  and  others  hastily  threw  up  log 
forts,  the  army  was  mobilized  by  General  Atkinson, 
who  appeared  at  the  rendezvous  with  three  hundred 
regulars.  There  were  many  notable  men  upon  this  ex- 
pedition :  Abraham  Lincoln,  then  a  rawboned  young 
fellow,  was  captain  of  a  company  of  Illinois  rangers ; 
Zachary  Taylor,  famous  for  his  bluff  manner,  was  a 


140 

colonel  of  regulars ;  and  Jefferson  Davis,  who  was  woo- 
ing Taylor's  daughter,  was  one  of  his  lieutenants  ;  also 
of  the  regulars,  was  Major  William  S.  Harney,  after- 
ward the  hero  of  Cerro  Gordo  in  the  Mexican  War  ; 
and  the  mustering-in  officer  was  Lieutenant  Robert 
Anderson,  who  was  to  become  famous  in  connection 
with  Fort  Sumter. 

Black  Hawk  was  foolish  enough  to  send  a  message 
of  defiance  to  General  Atkinson,  and,  retreating  up  the 
Rock,  he  came  to  a  stand  at  Stillman's  Creek.  Here 
he  repented,  and  sent  out  runners  with  a  flag  of  truce, 
to  inform  the  white  chief  that  he  would  surrender ;  but 
the  drunken  pickets  of  the  militia  advance  wantonly 
killed  these  messengers  of  peace.  This  so  angered  the 
Hawk  that  with  a  mere  handful  of  thirty-five  braves, 
on  foot,  and  hid  in  the  hazel  brush,  he  turned  in  fury 
upon  the  two  hundred  seventy-five  horsemen  who 
were  now  rushing  upon  him.  The  cowardly  rangers, 
who  fled  at  the  first  volley  of  the  savages,  without  re- 
turning it,  were  haunted  by  the  genius  of  fear,  and, 
dashing  madly  through  swamps  and  creeks,  did  not 
stop  until  they  had  reached  Dixon,  twenty-five  miles 
away.  Many  kept  on  at  a  keen  gallop  till  they 
reached  their  own  firesides,  fifty  or  more  miles  farther, 
carrying  the  absurd  report  that  Black  Hawk  and  two 
thousand  bloodthirsty  warriors  were  sweeping  northern 
Illinois  with  the  besom  of  destruction. 

Rich  in  supplies  captured  in  this  first  encounter,  and 
naturally  encouraged  at  the  result  of  his  valor,  the 
Hawk  thought  that  so  long  as  the  whites  were  deter- 
mined to  make  him  fight,  he  would  show  his  claws  in 


141 

earnest.  Removing  the  women  and  children  to  far- 
away swamps  on  the  headwaters  of  the  Rock  River, 
in  Wisconsin,  he  thence  descended  with  his  braves  for 
a  general  raid  through  northern  Illinois.  The  bor- 
derers flew  like  chickens  to  cover,  on  the  warning  of 
the  Hawk's  foray.  There  was  consternation  through- 
out the  entire  West.  Exaggerated  reports  of  his  forces, 
and  of  the  nature  of  his  expedition,  were  spread  through- 
out the  land.  His  name  became  coupled  with  fabulous 
tales  of  savage  cunning  and  cruelty,  and  served  as  a 
household  bugaboo  the  country  over.  The  effect  on 
the  Illinois  militia  was  singular  enough,  considering 
their  haste  in  taking  the  field;  in  a  frenzy  of  fear, 
they  instantly  disbanded ! 

A  fresh  levy  was  soon  raised,  but  in  the  interval 
there  were  irregular  hostilities  all  along  the  Illinois- 
Wisconsin  border,  in  which  Black  Hawk  and  a  few 
Winnebago  and  Pottawattomie  allies  succeeded  in  mak- 
ing life  miserable  enough  for  the  frontier  farmers  of 
northern  Illinois  and  the  lead  miners  of  southwest 
Wisconsin.  In  these  border  strifes  fully  two  hundred 
whites  and  nearly  as  many  Indians  lost  their  lives ;  and 
there  were  numerous  instances  of  romantic  heroism  on 
the  part  of  the  settlers,  men  and  women  alike. 

In  about  three  weeks  after  Stillman's  defeat  the  reor- 
ganized militia  took  the  field,  reenforced  by  the  regulars 
under  Atkinson.  Black  Hawk  was  forced  to  fly  to  the 
swampy  region  of  the  upper  Rock ;  but,  when  the  pur- 
suit became  too  warm,  he  hastily  withdrew  with  his 
entire  band  westward  to  the  Wisconsin  River.  Closely 
following  upon  his  trail  were  a  brigade  of  Illinois  troops 


142 

under  General  James  D.  Henry,  and  a  battalion  of  Wis- 
consin lead  mine  rangers  under  Major  Henry  Dodge, 
afterwards  governor  of  Wisconsin  Territory. 

The  pursuers  came  up  with  the  savages  at  Prairie  du 
Sac.  Here  the  south  bank  of  the  Wisconsin  consists  of 
steep,  grassy  bluffs,  three  hundred  feet  in  height ;  hence 
the  encounter  which  ensued  is  known  in  history  as  the 
Battle  of  the  Wisconsin  Heights.  With  consummate 
skill,  Black  Hawk  made  a  stand  on  the  summit  of  the 
heights,  and  with  a  small  party  of  warriors  held  the 
whites  in  check  until  the  noncombatants  had  crossed 
the  broad  river  bottoms  below,  and  gained  shelter  upon 
the  willow-grown  shore  opposite.  The  loss  on  either 
side  was  slight,  the  action  being  notable  only  for  the 
Sac  leader's  superior  management. 

During  the  night,  the  passage  of  the  river  was  ac- 
complished by  the  fugitives.  A  large  party  was  sent 
downstream  upon  a  raft,  and  in  canoes  begged  from 
the  Winnebagoes ;  but  those  who  took  this  method  of 
escape  were  brutally  fired  upon  near  the  mouth  of  the 
river  by  a  detachment  from  the  garrison  at  Prairie  du 
Chien,  and  fifteen  were  killed  in  cold  blood.  The  rest 
of  the  pursued,  headed  by  Black  Hawk,  who  had  again 
made  an  attempt  to  surrender  his  forces,  but  had  failed 
for  lack  of  an  interpreter,  pushed  across  country, 
guided  by  Winnebagoes,  to  the  mouth  of  the  Bad  Ax, 
a  little  stream  emptying  into  the  Mississippi  about  forty 
miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Wisconsin  River.  His 
intention  was  to  get  his  people  as  quickly  as  possible 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  in  the  hope  that 
they  would  there  be  allowed  to  remain  in  peace. 


143 

The  Indians  were  followed,  three  days  behind,  by  the 
united  army  of  regulars,  who  steadily  gained  on  them. 
The  country  between  Wisconsin  Heights  and  the  Mis- 
sissippi is  rough  and  forbidding  in  character ;  there  are 
numerous  swamps  and  rivers  between  the  steep,  thickly 
wooded  hills.  The  uneven  pathway  was  strewn  with 
the  corpses  of  Sacs  who  had  died  of  wounds  and  starva- 


tion ;  and  there  were  frequent  evidences  that  the  flee- 
ing wretches  were  sustaining  life  on  the  bark  of  trees 
and  the  flesh  of  their  fagged-out  ponies. 

On  Wednesday,  the  ist  of  August,  Black  Hawk 
and  his  now  sadly  depleted  and  almost  famished  band 
reached  the  junction  of  the  Bad  Ax  with  the  Missis- 
sippi. There  were  only  two  or  three  canoes  to  be  had, 
and  the  crossing  of  the  Father  of  Waters  progressed 


144 

slowly  and  with  frequent  loss  of  life.  That  afternoon 
there  appeared  upon  the  scene  a  government  supply 
steamer,  the  Warrior,  from  Fort  Crawford  (Prairie  du 
Chien),  at  the  mouth  of  the  Wisconsin.  The  Indians  a 
third  time  tried  to  surrender,  but  their  white  flag  was 
deliberately  fired  at,  and  round  after  round  of  canister 
swept  the  camp. 

The  next  day  the  pursuing  troops  arrived  on  the 
heights  above  the  river  bench,  the  Warrior  again 
opened  its  attack,  and  thus,  caught  between  two  gall- 
ing fires,  the  little  army  of  savages  soon  melted  away. 
But  fifty  remained  alive  on  the  spot  to  be  taken  pris- 
oners. Some  three  hundred  weaklings  had  reached  the 
Iowa  shore  through  the  hail  of  iron  and  lead.  Of  these 
three  hundred  helpless,  half-starved,  unarmed  noncom- 
batants,  over  a  half  were  slaughtered  by  a  party  of 
Sioux,  under  Wabashaw,  who  had  been  sent  out  by 
our  government  to  waylay  them.  So  that  out  of  the 
band  of  a  thousand  Indians  who  had  crossed  the  Mis- 
sissippi over  into  Illinois  in  April,  not  more  than  a 
hundred  and  fifty,  all  told,  lived  to  tell  the  tragic  story 
of  the  Black  Hawk  War,  a  tale  that  stains  the  Ameri- 
can name  with  dishonor. 

The  rest  can  soon  be  told.  The  Winnebago  guer- 
rillas, who  had  played  fast  and  loose  during  the  cam- 
paign, delivered  to  the  whites  at  Fort  Crawford  the 
unfortunate  Black  Hawk,  who  had  fled  from  the  Bad 
Ax  to  the  Dells  of  the  Wisconsin  River,  to  seek  an 
asylum  with  his  false  friends.  The  proud  old  man, 
shorn  of  all  his  strength,  was  presented  to  the  Presi- 
dent at  Washington,  imprisoned  in  Fortress  Monroe, 


145 

forced  to  sign  articles  of  perpetual  peace,  and  then 
turned  over  for  safe  keeping  to  the  Sac  chief,  Keokuk, 
his  hated  rival.  He  died  on  a  small  reservation  in 
Iowa,  in  1838.  But  he  was  not  even  then  at  peace, 
for  his  bones  were  stolen  by  an  Illinois  physician,  for 
exhibition  purposes,  and  finally  were  accidentally  con- 
sumed by  fire  in  1853. 

Black  Hawk,  with  all  the  limitations  of  his  race,  had 
in  his  character  a  strength  and  manliness  of  fiber  that 
were  most  remarkable,  and  displayed  throughout  his 
brief  campaign  a  positive  genius  for  military  evolutions. 
He  may  be  safely  ranked  as  one  of  the  most  interesting 
specimens  of  the  North  American  savage  to  be  met 
with  in  history.  He  was  an  indiscreet  man.  His 
troubles  were  brought  about  by  a  lack  of  mental  bal- 
ance, aided  largely  by  unfortunate  circumstances.  His 
was  a  highly  romantic  temperament.  He  was  carried 
away  by  mere  sentiment,  and  allowed  himself  to  be 
deceived  by  tricksters.  But  he  was  honest,  and  was 
more  honorable  than  many  of  his  conquerors  were. 
He  was,  above  all  things,  a  patriot.  The  year  before 
his  death,  in  a  speech  to  a  party  of  whites  who  were 
making  a  holiday  hero  of  him,  he  thus  forcibly  defended 
his  motives  :  "  Rock  River  was  a  beautiful  country.  I 
liked  my  town,  my  cornfields,  and  the  home  of  my 
people.  I  fought  for  them."  No  poet  could  have 
penned  for  him  a  more  touching  epitaph. 


STO.    OF    HAUGEK    STA.  —  IO 


THE   STORY   OF  CHEQUAMEGON    BAY 

/^HEQUAMEGON  BAY,  of  Lake  Superior,  has 
v_>  had  a  long  and  an  interesting  history.  Nearly 
two  and  a  half  centuries  ago,  in  the  early  winter 
months  of  1659,  two  adventurous  French  traders, 
Radisson  and  Groseilliers,  built  a  little  palisade  here, 
to  protect  the  stock  of  goods  which  they  exchanged 
with  the  Indians  for  furs.  This  was  on  the  southwest- 
ern shore  of  the  bay,  a  few  miles  west  of  the  present 
city  of  Ashland,  and  in  the  neighborhood  of  Whittle- 
sey's  Creek. 

These  men  did  not  tarry  long  at  Chequamegon  Bay. 
For  the  most  part,  they  merely  kept  their  stock  of 
goods  hid  in  a  cache  there,  while  for  some  ten  months 
they  traveled  through  the  woods,  far  and  wide,  in 
search  of  trade  with  the  dusky  natives.  But  they  made 
the  region  known  to  Frenchmen  in  the  settlements  at 
Quebec  and  Montreal,  as  a  favorite  meeting-place  for 
many  tribes  of  Indians  who  came  to  the  bay  to  fish. 

The  first  Jesuit  mission  on  Lake  Superior  was  con- 
ducted by  Father  Ren6  Me'nard,  at  Keweenaw  Bay ; 
but  he  lost  his  life  in  the  forest  in  1661.  In  1665 
the  Jesuits  determined  to  reopen  their  mission  on  the 
great  lake,  and  for  that  purpose  sent  Father  Claude 
140 


147 


Allouez.  Having  heard  of  the  advantages  of  Chequa- 
megon  Bay,  Allouez  proceeded  thither,  and  erected  his 
little  chapel  in  an  Indian  village  upon  the  mainland, 
not  far  from  Radisson's  old  palisade,  and  possibly  at 
the  mouth  of  Vanderventer's  Creek.  He  called  his 
mission  La  Pointe. 

Conversions  were  few  at  La  Pointe,  and  Allouez 
soon  longed  for  a  broader  field.  He  was  relieved  in 
1669  by  Father  Jacques  Marquette,  a  young  and 
earnest  priest.  But  it  was  not  long  before  the  Sioux 
of  Minnesota  quarreled  with  the  Indians  of  Chequa- 
megon  Bay ;  and  the  latter,  with  Marquette, 
were  driven  eastward  as  far  as  Mackinac. 

Although   the    missionaries   had    de- 
serted La  Pointe,  fur  traders  soon  came 
to  be  numerous 
there.      One 
of  the  most 


prominent  of  these  was  Daniel  Grayson  Duluth,  for 
whom  the  modern  lake  city  of  Minnesota  was  named. 
For  several  years  he  had  a  small  palisaded  fort  upon 
Chequamegon  Bay,  and,  with  a  lively  crew  of  well- 
armed  boatmen,  roamed  all  over  the  surrounding  coun- 


148 

try,  north,  west,  and  south  of  Lake  Superior,  trading 
with  far-away  bands  of  savages.  He  had  two  favor- 
ite routes  between  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi 
River.  One  was  by  way  of  the  narrow  and  turbulent 
Bois  Brule,  then  much  choked  by  fallen  trees  and 
beaver  dams;  a  portage  trail  of  a  mile  and  a  half  from 
its  headwaters  to  those  of  the  St.  Croix  River ;  and 
thence,  through  Teaming  rapids,  and  deep,  cool  lakes, 
down  into  the  Father  of  Waters.  The  other,  an  easier, 
but  longer  way,  was  up  the  rugged  St.  Louis  River, 
which  separates  Wisconsin  from  Minnesota  on  the 
northwest,  over  into  the  Sand  Lake  country,  and 
thence,  through  watery  labyrinths,  into  feeders  of  the 
Mississippi. 

Another  adventurous  French  forest  trader,  who  quar- 
tered on  Chequamegon  Bay,  was  Le  Sueur,  who,  in 
1693,  built  a  fort  upon  Madelaine  Island.  During 
the  old  Fox  War  the  valleys  of  the  Fox  and  the 
Wisconsin  were  closed  to  Frenchmen  by  the  enraged 
Indians.  This,  the  most  popular  route  between  the 
Great  Lakes  and  the  great  river,  being  now  unavailable, 
it  became  necessary  to  keep  open  Duluth's  old  routes 
from  Lake  Superior  over  to  the  Upper  Mississippi. 
This  was  why  Le  Sueur  was  sent  to  Chequamegon 
Bay,  to  overawe  the  Indians  of  that  region.  He 
thought  that  his  fort  would  be  safer  from  attack  upon 
the  island,  than  upon  the  mainland.  As  La  Pointe 
had  now  come  to  be  the  general  name  of  this  entire 
neighborhood,  the  island  fort  bore  the  same  name  as 
the  old  headquarters  on  land.  It  is  well  to  remember 
that  the  history  of  Madelaine  Island,  the  La  Pointe  of 


149 

to-day,  dates  from  Le  Sueur ;  that  the  old  La  Pointe 
of  Radisson,  Allouez,  Marquette,  and  probably  Duluth, 
was  on  the  mainland  several  miles  to  the  southwest. 

In  connection  with  the  La  Pointe  fort  protecting  the 
northern  approach  to  Duluth's  trading  routes,  Le  Sueur 
erected  another  stockade  to  guard  the  southern  end, 
the  location  of  this  latter  being  on  an  island  in  the 
Mississippi,  near  the  present  Red  Wing,  Minnesota. 
The  fort  in  the  Mississippi  soon  became  "  the  center  of 
commerce  for  the  Western  parts  " ;  and  the  station  at 
La  Pointe  also  soon  rose  to  importance,  for  the  Chip- 
pewas,  who  had  drifted  far  inland  with  the  growing 
scarcity  of  game,  were  led  by  the  presence  of  traders 
to  return  to  Chequamegon  Bay,  and  mass  themselves 
in  a  large  village  on  the  southwest  shore. 

Although  Le  Sueur  was  not  many  years  in  command 
at  the  bay,  we  catch  frequent  glimpses  thereafter  of  fur 
trade  stations  here,  French,  English,  and  American 
in  turn,  most  of  them  doubtless  being  on  Madelaine 
Island.  We  know,  for  instance,  that  there  was  a 
French  trader  at  La  Pointe  in  1717;  also,  that  the  year 
following,  a  French  officer  was  sent  there,  with  a  few 
soldiers,  to  patch  up  and  garrison  the  old  stockade. 
Whether  a  garrisoned  fort  was  kept  up  at  the  bay,  from 
that  time  till  the  downfall  of  New  France  (1763),  we 
cannot  say ;  but  it  seems  probable,  for  the  geographical 
position  was  one  of  great  importance  in  the  development 
of  the  fur  trade. 

We  first  hear  of  copper  in  the  vicinity,  in  1730,  when 
an  Indian  brought  a  nugget  to  the  La  Pointe  post;  but 
the  whereabouts  of  the  mine  was  concealed  by  the 


150 

savages,  because  of  their  superstitions  relative  to  min- 
eral deposits. 

The  commandant  of  La  Pointe,  at  this  time,  was  La 
Ronde,  the  chief  fur  trader  in  the  Lake  Superior  coun- 
try. He  and  his  son,  who  was  his  partner,  built  for 
their  trade  a  sailing  vessel  of  forty  tons  burden,  without 
doubt  the  first  one  of  the  kind  upon  the  great  lake. 
We  find  evidences  of  the  La  Rondes,  father  and  son, 
down  as  late  as  1744;  a  curious  old  map  of  that  year 
gives  the  name  of  "  Isle  de  la  Ronde  "  to  what  we  now 
know  as  Madelaine. 

We  find  nothing  more  of  importance  concerning  Che- 
quamegon  Bay  until  about  1756,  when  Beaubassin  was 
the  French  officer  in  charge  of  the  fort.  The  English 
colonists  were  harassing  the  French  along  the  St.  Law- 
rence River ;  and  Beaubassin,  with  hundreds  of  other 
officers  of  wilderness  forts,  was  ordered  down  with  his 
Indian  allies  to  the  settlements  of  Montreal,  Three 
Rivers,  and  Quebec,  to  defend  New  France.  The 
Chippewas,  with  other  Wisconsin  tribes,  actuated  by 
extravagant  promises  of  presents,  booty,  and  scalps, 
eagerly  flocked  to  the  banner  of  France,  and  in  painted 
swarms  appeared  in  fighting  array  on  the  banks  of 
the  St.  Lawrence.  But  they  helped  the  British  more 
than  the  French,  for  they  would  not  fight,  yet  with 
large  appetites  ate  up  the  provisions  of  their  allies. 

The  garrison  being  withdrawn  from  La  Pointe,  Made- 
laine Island  became  a  camping-ground  for  unlicensed 
traders,  who  had  freedom  to  plunder  the  country  at 
their  will,  for  New  France,  tottering  to  her  fall,  could 
no  longer  police  the  upper  lakes.  In  the  autumn  of 


1760  one  of  these  parties  encamped  upon  the  island. 
By  the  time  winter  had  set  in  upon  them,  all  had  left 
for  their  wintering  grounds  in  the  forests  of  the  far 
West  and  Northwest,  save  a  clerk  named  Joseph,  who 
remained  in  charge  of  the  goods  and  what  local  trade 
there  was; "  With  him  were  his  wife,  his  small  son, 
and  a  manservant.  Traditions  differ  as  to  the  cause  of 
the  servant's  action  ;  some  have  it,  a  desire  for  plun- 
der; others,  his  detection  in  a  series  of  petty  thefts, 
which  Joseph  threatened  to  report.  However  that  may 
be,  the  servant  murdered  first  the  clerk,  then  the  wife, 
and  in  a  few  days,  stung  by  the  child's  piteous  cries, 
killed  him  also.  When  the  spring  came,  and  the 
traders  returned  to  Chequamegon,  they  inquired  for 
Joseph  and  his  family.  The  servant's  reply  was  at  first 
unsatisfactory  ;  but  when  pushed  for  an  explanation, 
he  confessed  to  his  terrible  deed.  The  story  goes,  that 
in  horror  the  traders  dismantled  the  old  French  fort, 
now  overgrown  with  underbrush,  as  a  thing  accursed, 
sunk  the  cannon  in  a  neighboring  pool,  and  so  de- 
stroyed the  palisade  that  to-day  certain  mysterious 
grassy  mounds  alone  remain  to  testify  of  the  tragedy. 
They  carried  their  prisoner  with  them  on  their  return 
voyage  to  Montreal,  but  he  is  said  to  have  escaped  to 
the  Huron  Indians,  among  whom  he  boasted  of  his 
act,  only  to  be  killed  by  them  as  too  cruel  to  be  a 
companion  even  for  savages. 

Five  years  later  a  great  English  trader,  Alexan- 
der Henry,  who  had  obtained  the  exclusive  trade  on 
Lake  Superior,  wintered  on  the  mainland  opposite 
Madelaine  Island.  His  partner  was  Jean  Baptiste 


152 

Cadotte,  a  thrifty  Frenchman,  who  for  many  years 
thereafter  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  characters  on 
the  upper  lakes.  *  Soon  after  this,  a  Scotch  trader 
named  John  Johnston  established  himself  on  the  island, 
and  married  a  comely  Chippewa  maiden,  whose  father 
was  chief  of  the  native  village  situated  four  miles  across 
the  water,  on  the  site  of  the  Bayfield  of  to-day. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
Michel,  a  son  of  old  Jean  Baptiste  Cadotte,  took  up 
his  abode  on  the  island ;  and  from  that  time  to  the 
present  there  has  been  a  continuous  settlement  there, 
which  bears  the  name  La  Pointe.  Michel,  himself  the 
child  of  a  Chippewa  mother,  but  educated  at  Montreal, 
married  Equaysayway,  the  daughter  of  White  Crane, 
the  village  chief  on  the  island,  and  became  a  person 
of  much  importance  thereabout.  For  over  a  quarter 
of  a  century  this  island  nabob  lived  at  his  ease ;  here 
he  cultivated  a  little  farm,  commanded  a  variable  but 
far-reaching  fur  trade,  first  as  agent  of  the  North- 
west Company,  and,  later,  of  the  American  Fur  Com- 
pany, and  reared  a  large  family.  His  sons  were 
educated  at  Montreal,  and  become  the  heads  of  fami- 
lies of  traders,  interpreters,  and  voyagenrs. 

To  this  little  paradise  of  the  Cadottes  there  came  (in 
1818)  two  sturdy,  fairly  educated  young  men  from  Mas- 
sachusetts, Lyman  Marcus  Warren,  and  his  younger 
brother,  Truman  Warren.  Engaging  in  the  fur  trade, 
these  two  brothers,  of  old  Puritan  stock,  married  two 
half-breed  daughters  of  Michel  Cadotte.  In  time  they 
bought  out  Michel's  interests,  and  managed  the  Ameri- 
can Fur  Company's  stations  at  many  far-distant  places, 


153 

such  as  Lac  Flambeau,  Lac  Court  Oreilles,  and  the 
St.  Croix.  The  Warrens  were  the  last  of  the  great 
La  Pointe  fur  traders,  Truman  dying  in  1825,  and 
Lyman  twenty-two  years  later. 

Lyman  Warren,  although  possessed  of  a  Catholic 
wife,  was  a  Presbyterian.  Not  since  the  days  of  Mar- 
quette  had  there  been  an  ordained  minister  at  La  Pointe, 
and  the  Catholics  were  not  just  then  ready  to  reenter 
the  long-neglected  field.  Warren  was  eager  to  have 
religious  instruction  on  the  island,  for  both  Indians 
and  whites;  and  in  1831  succeeded  in  inducing  the 
American  Home  Missionary  Society  to  send  hither, 
from  Mackinac,  the  Rev.  Sherman  Hall  and  wife,  as 
missionary  and  teacher.  These  were  the  first  Protes- 
tant missionaries  upon  the  shores  of  Lake  Superior. 
For  many  years  their  modest  little -church  building  at 
La  Pointe  was  the  center  of  a  considerable  and  pros- 
perous mission,  both  island  and  mainland,  which  did 
much  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  Chippewa  tribe. 
In  later  years  the  mission  was  moved  to  Odanah. 

Four  years  after  the  coming  of  the  Halls,  there 
arrived  at  the  island  village  a  worthy  Austrian  priest, 
Father  (afterward  Bishop)  Baraga.  In  a  small  log 
chapel  by  the  side  of  the  Indian  graveyard,  this  new 
mission  of  the  older  faith  throve  apace.  Baraga  visited 
Europe  to  beg  money  for  the  cause,  and  in  a  few  years 
constructed  a  new  chapel ;  this  is  sometimes  shown  to 
summer  tourists  as  the  original  chapel  of  Marquette, 
but  no  part  of  the  ancient  mainland  chapel  went  into 
its  construction.  Baraga  was  a  man  of  unusual  attain- 
ments, and  spent  his  life  in  laboring  for  the  better- 


154 

ment  of  the  Indians  of  the  Lake  Superior  country, 
with  a  self-sacrificing  zeal  which  is  rare  in  the  records 
of  any  church.  At  present,  the  Franciscan  friars,  with 
headquarters  at  Bayfield,  on  the  mainland,  are  in  charge 
of  the  island  mission. 

La  Pointe  has  lost  many  of  its  old-time  characteris- 
tics.   No  longer  is  it  the  refuge  of  squalid  Indian  tribes  ; 


fflf  . 


no  longer  is  it  a  center  of  the  fur  trade,  with  gayly 
clothed  coureurs  de  bois,  with  traders  and  their  dusky 
brides,  with  rollicking  voyagcnrs  taking  no  heed  of  the 
morrow.  With  the  killing  of  the  game,  and  the  opening 
of  the  Lake  Superior  country  to  the  occupation  of 
farmers  and  miners  and  manufacturers,  its  forest  trade 
has  departed ;  the  Protestant  mission  has  followed  the 
majority  of  the  Indian  islanders  to  mainland  reserva- 
tions;  and  the  revived  mission  of  the  Mother  Church 
has  also  been  quartered  upon  the  bay  shore. 


WISCONSIN   TERRITORY   FORMED 

WHAT  we  now  know  as  Wisconsin  was  part  of  the 
vast  undefined  wilderness  to  which  the  Spaniards, 
early  in  the  sixteenth  century,  gave  the  name  Florida. 
Spain  claimed  the  country  because  of  the  early  dis- 
coveries of  her  navigators  and  explorers.  Her  claim 
was  undisputed  until  there  came  to  North  America 
the  energetic  French,  who  penetrated  the  continent 
by  means  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Ottawa  rivers  and 
the  Great  Lakes,  and  gradually  took  possession  of  the 
inland  water  systems,  as  fast  as  discovered  by  their 
fur  traders  and  missionaries.  It  should  be  understood, 
however,  that  there  were  very  few,  if  any,  Spaniards 
in  all  this  vast  territory,  except  on  or  near  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico. 

In  1608  Quebec  was  founded.  It  is  supposed  that 
twenty-six  years  later  the  first  Frenchman  reached  Wis- 
consin, which  may,  from  that  date  (1634)  till  1763,  be 
considered  as  a  part  of  French  territory.  When  Great 
Britain  conquered  New  France,  Wisconsin  became  her 
property,  and  so  continued  till  the  treaty  of  1783,  by 
which  our  Northwest  was  declared  to  be  American  soil. 

Owing  to  the  vague  and  undefined  boundaries  given 
by  the  British  government  to  its  original  colonies  on  the 
'55 


1 56 

Atlantic  slope,  several  of  the  thirteen  States  claimed 
that  their  territory  extended  out  into  the  Northwest ; 
but  finally  all  these  claims  were  surrendered  to  the 
general  government,  in  order  that  there  might  be 
formed  a  national  domain,  from  which  to  create  new 
States.  By  the  famous  Ordinance  of  1787,  Congress 
created  the  Northwest  Territory,  which  embraced  the 
wide  stretch  of  country  lying  between  the  Great  Lakes 
and  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  rivers.  The  present 
Wisconsin  was  a  part  of  this  great  territory. 

In  the  year  1800  Indiana  Territory  was  set  off  from 
the  rest  of  the  Northwest  Territory,  and  took  Wisconsin 
with  it.  Nine  years  later  Illinois  Territory  was  formed, 
Wisconsin  being  within  its  bounds.  Nine  years  after 
that,  when  Illinois  became  a  State,  all  the  country  lying 
west  of  Lake  Michigan  was  given  to  Michigan  Terri- 
tory ;  thus  was  the  ownership  of  Wisconsin  once  more 
changed,  and  she  became  a  part  of  Michigan. 

By  this  time  settlers  were  coming  into  the  region 
west  of  the  lake.  There  had  long  been  several  little 
French  villages ;  but,  in  addition  to  the  French,  numer- 
ous American  farmers  and  professional  men  had  lately 
arrived.  The  great  distance  from  Detroit,  at  a  time 
when  there  were  no  railways  or  telegraphs,  was  such  as 
to  make  it  almost  impossible  to  carry  on  any  govern- 
ment here.  Hence,  after  a  good  deal  of  complaint 
from  the  frontiersmen  living  to  the  west  of  Lake 
Michigan,  and  some  angry  words  back  and  forth  be- 
tween these  people  and  those  residing  east  of  the  lake, 
Congress  was  induced,  in  1836,  to  erect  Wisconsin 
Territory,  with  its  own  government. 


157 


Thus  far,  this  region  beyond  Lake  Michigan  had 
borne  no  particular  name.  It  was  simply  an  outlying 
part  of  the  Northwest  Territory;  or  of  the  Territories 
of  Indiana,  Illinois,  or  Michigan,  as  the  case  might  be. 
But,  now  that  it  was  to  be  a  Territory  by  itself,  a  name 
had  to  be  adopted.  The  one  taken  was  that  of  its 
principal  river,  although  "  Chippewau "  was  preferred 
by  many  people.  Wisconsin  is  an  Indian  name,  the 
exact  meaning  of  which  is  unknown;  some  writers  have 
said  that  it  signifies  "gathering  of  the  waters,"  or 
"  meeting  of  the  waters,"  but  there  is  no  warrant  for 
this.  The  earliest  known  French  form  of  the  word  is 
"  Misconsing,"  which  gradually  became  crystallized  into 
"Ouisconsin."  When  the  English  language  became 
dominant,  it  was  necessary  to  change  the  spelling  in 
order  to  preserve  the  sound ;  it  thus,  at  first,  became 
"  Wiskonsan,"  or  "Wiskonsin,"  but 
finally,  by  official  action, 
"Wisconsin."  The"k 
was,  however,  rather 
strongly  insisted  on  / 
by  Governor  Doty  '• 
and  many  news-  jr: 
paper  editors,  in  the 
days  of  the  Territory. 

The  first  session  of  the  legislature  of  the  new  Terri- 
tory of  Wisconsin  was  held  at  the  recently  platted  vil- 
lage of  Belmont,  in  the  present  county  of  Lafayette. 
The  place  of  meeting  was  a  little  story-and-a-half  frame 
house.  Lead  miners'  shafts  dimpled  the  country  round 
about,  and  new  stumps  could  be  seen  upon  every  hand. 


1 58 

There  were  many  things  to  be  done  by  the  legislature, 
such  as  dividing  the  Territory  into  counties,  selecting 
county  seats,  incorporating  banks,  and  borrowing  money 
with  which  to  run  the  new  government ;  but  the  matter 
which  occasioned  the  most  excitement  was  the  location 
of  the  capital,  and  the  bitterness  which  resulted  was 
long  felt  in  the  political  history  of  Wisconsin. 

A  month  was  spent  in  this  contest.  The  claimants 
were  Milwaukee,  Racine,  Koshkonong,  Fond  du  Lac, 
Green  Bay,  Madison,  Wisconsinapolis,  Peru,  Wisconsin 
City,  Portage,  Helena,  Belmont,  Mineral  Point,  Platte- 
ville,  Cassville,  Belleview,  and  Dubuque  (now  in  Iowa, 
but  then  in  Wisconsin).  Some  of  these  towns  existed 
only  upon  maps  published  by  real  estate  speculators. 

Madison  was  a  beautiful  spot,  in  the  heart  of  the  wild 
woods  and  lakes  of  central  southern  Wisconsin.  It  was 
unknown  save  to  a  few  trappers,  and  to  the  speculators 
who  had  bought  the  land  from  the  federal  government, 
and  thought  they  saw  a  fortune  in  inducing  the  legisla- 
ture to  adopt  it  as  the  seat  of  government.  Madison 
won,  upon  the  argument  that  it  was  halfway  between 
the  rival  settlements  on  Lake  Michigan  and  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  that  to  build  a  city  there  would  assist  in  the 
development  of  the  interior  of  the  Territory. 

When  Madison  was  chosen,  a  surveyor  hurried  thither, 
and  in  a  blinding  snowstorm  laid  out  the  prospective 
city.  The  village  grew  slowly,  and  it  was  November, 
1838,  before  the  legislature  could  meet  in  its  new  home. 


WISCONSIN    BECOMES   A   STATE 

SOME  of  the  people  of  Wisconsin  were  not  long  con- 
tent with  a  Territorial  government.  The  Territory 
was  only  two  years  old  when  a  bill  was  introduced  in 
Congress  for  a  State  government,  but  the  attempt  failed. 
In  1841  Governor  Doty,  the  leader  in  the  movement, 
had  the  question  put  to  popular  vote ;  but  it  was  lost, 
as  it  also  was  in  the  year  following.  In  1843  a  third 
attempt  was  defeated  in  the  Territorial  council  (or  sen- 
ate); and  in  1845,  still  another  met  defeat  in  the  Terri- 
torial house  of  representatives  (or  assembly). 

But  at  last  our  Territorial  representative  in  Congress 
gave  notice  (January  9,  1846),  "of  a  motion  for  leave 
to  introduce  a  bill  to  enable  the  people  of  Wisconsin 
to  form  a  constitution  and  State  government,  and  for 
the  admission  of  such  State  into  the  Union."  He  fol- 
lowed this,  a  few  days  later,  by  the  introduction  of  a 
bill  to  that  effect ;  the  bill  passed,  and  in  August  the 
measure  was  approved  by  President  Polk. 
'59 


i6o 

Meanwhile,  the  council  and  house  of  Wisconsin  Ter- 
ritory had  favorably  voted  on  the  proposition.  This  was 
in  January  and  February,  1846.  In  April  the  question 
of  Statehood  was  passed  upon  by  the  people  of  the 
Territory,  the  returns  this  time  showing  12,334  votes 
for,  and  2487  against.  In  August,  Governor  Dodge 
issued  a  proclamation  calling  a  convention  for  the  draft- 
ing of  a  constitution. 

The  convention  was  in  session  in  the  Territorial  capi- 
tol  at  Madison,  between  October  5  and  December  16, 
1846.  But  the  constitution  which  it  framed  was  rejected 
by  the  people.  The  contest  over  the  document  had  been 
of  an  exciting  nature ;  the  defeat  was  owing  to  differ- 
ences of  opinion  upon  the  articles  relating  to  the  rights 
of  married  women,  exemptions,  banks,  the  elective  judi- 
ciary, and  the  number  of  members  of  the  legislature. 

As  soon  as  practicable,  Governor  Dodge  called  a  spe- 
cial session  of  the  Territorial  legislature,  which  made 
provisions  for  a  second  constitutional  convention.  Most 
of  the  members  of  the  first  convention  declined  reelec- 
tion; six  only  were  returned.  The  second  convention 
was  in  session  at  Madison  from  December  15,  1847, 
to  February  i,  1848.  The  members  of  both  conventions 
were  men  of  high  standing  in  their  several  communi- 
ties, and  later  many  of  them  held  prominent  positions 
in  the  service  of  the  State  and  the  nation. 

The  constitution  adopted  by  the  second  convention 
was  so  satisfactory  to  most  people,  that  the  popular  ver- 
dict in  March  (16,799  ayes  and  6384  noes)  surprised  no 
one.  Arrangements  for  a  new  bill  in  Congress,  admit- 
ting Wisconsin  to  the  Union,  were  already  well  under 


way.  Upon  the  very  day  of  the  vote  by  the  people, 
before  the  result  was  kno\vn,  the  Territorial  legislature 
held  its  final  meeting,  and  left  everything  ready  for  the 
new  State  government. 

The  general  election  for  the  first  State  officers  and  the 
members  of  the  first  State  legislature  was  held  May  8. 
President  Polk  approved  the  congressional  act  of  admis- 
sion May  29.  Upon  the  /th  of  June,  Governor  Nelson 
Dewey  and  his  fellow-officials  were  sworn  into  office, 
and  the  legislature  opened  its  first  session. 

In  the  old  lead  mining  days  of  Wisconsin,  miners 
from  southern  Illinois  and  still  farther  south  returned 
home  every  winter,  and  came  back  to  the  "  diggings  " 
in  the  spring,  thus  imitating  the  migrations  of  the 
fish  popularly  called  the  "sucker,"  in  the  south-flowing 
rivers  of  the  region.  For  this  reason  the  south-winterers 
were  humorously  called  "  Suckers."  On  the  other  hand, 
lead  miners  from  the  far-off  Eastern  States  were  un- 
able to  return  home  every  winter,  and  at  first  lived  in 
rude  dugouts,  burrowing  into  the  hillsides  after  the 
fashion  of  the  badger.  These  burrowing  men  were  the 
first  permanent  settlers  in  the  mines  north  of  the  Illi- 
nois line,  and  called  themselves  "  Badgers."  Thus 
Wisconsin,  in  later  days,  when  it  was  thought  necessary 
to  adopt  a  nickname,  was,  by  its  own  people,  dubbed 
"  The  Badger  State." 


STO.    OK   BADCF.K    STA.  — I! 


THE   BOUNDARIES   OF   WISCONSIN 

IN  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  whereby  Congress  created 
the  old  Northwest  Territory  out  of  the  triangle  of 
country  lying  between  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers 
and  Lake  of  the  Woods  and  the  Great  Lakes,  it  was 
provided  that  this  vast  region  should  eventually  be 
parcelled  into  five  States.  The  east-and-vvest  dividing 
line  was  to  be  "drawn  through  the  southerly  bend  or 
extreme  of  Lake  Michigan  "  ;  south  of  this  line  were  to 
be  erected  three  States,  and  north  of  it  two.  "  When- 
ever," the  ordinance  read,  "  any  of  the  said  States  shall 
have  sixty  thousand  free  inhabitants  therein,  such  State 
shall  be  admitted  "  to  the  Union. 

It  should  be  said,  in  explanation  of  this  east-and-west 
line,  that  all  the  maps  of  Lake  Michigan  then  extant 
represented  the  head  of  the  lake  as  being  much  farther 
north  than  it  was  proved  to  be  by  later  surveys.  The 
line  as  fixed  in  the  ordinance  proved  to  be  a  bone  of 
contention  in  the  subsequent  carving  of  the  Northwest 
Territory  into  States,  leading  to  a  good  deal  of  angry 
discussion  before  the  boundaries  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illi- 
nois, Michigan,  and  Wisconsin,  the  five  States  eventually 
formed  from  the  Territory,  became  established  as  they 
are  to-day. 

162 


Ohio,  the  first  State  to  be  set  off,  insisted  that  Mau- 
mee  Bay,  with  the  town  of  Toledo,  should  be  included 
in  her  bounds,  although  it  lay  north  of  the  east-and- 
west  line  of  the  ordinance.  Michigan,  on  the  other 
hand,  stoutly  insisted  on  the  line  as  laid  down  in  the 
law.  In  1835  and  1836  there  were  some  popular  dis- 


turbances along  the  border ;  one  of  these,  though  blood- 
less, was  so  violent  as  to  receive  the  name  of  "the 
Toledo  war."  Congress  finally  settled  the  quarrel  by 
giving  Ohio  the  northern  boundary  which  she  desired, 
regardless  of  the  terms  of  the  ordinance  ;  Michigan 
was  compensated  by  the  gift  of  what  we  now  call  the 
"  northern  peninsula  "  of  that  State,  although  it  had 
all  along  been  understood  that  the  country  lying  west 


164 

of  Lake  Michigan  should  be  the  property  of  the  fifth 
State,  whenever  that  was  created.  Thus,  in  order  that 
Ohio  might  have  another  lake  port  from  Michigan,  Wis- 
consin lost  this  immense  tract  of  mining  country  to  the 
north. 

When  Indiana  came  to  be  erected,  it  was  seen  that  to 
adopt  the  east-and-west  line,  established  by  the  ordi- 
nance, would  be  to  deprive  her  entirely  of  any  part  of 
the  coast  of  Lake  Michigan.  In  order,  therefore,  to 
satisfy  her,  Congress  took  another  strip,  ten  miles  wide, 
from  the  southern  border  of  Michigan,  and  gave  it  to 
the  new  State.  Michigan  made  no  objection  to  this 
fresh  violation  of  the  agreement  of  1787,  because  there 
were  no  important  harbors  or  towns  involved. 

Illinois  next  knocked  at  the  door  of  the  Union.  The 
same  conditions  applied  to  her  as  to  Indiana ;  a  strict 
construction  of  the  ordinance  would  deprive  her  of  an 
opening  on  the  lake.  The  Illinois  delegate  who  argued 
this  matter  in  Congress  was  shrewd ;  he  contended  that 
his  State  must  become  intimately  connected  with  the 
growing  commerce  of  the  northern  lakes,  else  she  would 
be  led,  from  her  commercial  relations  upon  the  south- 
flowing  Mississippi  and  Ohio  rivers,  to  join  a  Southern 
confederacy  in  case  the  Union  should  be  broken  up. 
This  was  in  1818,  and  shows  how  early  in  our  history 
there  had  come  to  be,  in  the  minds  of  some  far-seeing 
men,  a  fear  that  the  growing  power  of  slavery  might 
some  time  lead  to  secession.  The  argument  prevailed 
in  Congress,  and  there  was  voted  to  Illinois  a  strip  of 
territory  sixty-one  miles  wide,  lying  north  of  the  east- 
and-west  line. 


i(55 

Thus  again  was  the  region  later  to  be  called  Wisconsin 
deprived  of  a  large  and  valuable  tract.  When  Wiscon- 
sin Territory  was  created,  there  was  a  great  deal  of 
indignation  expressed  by  some  of  her  people,  at  being 
deprived  of  this  wide  belt  of  country  embracing  8500 
square  miles  of  exceedingly  fertile  soil,  numerous  river 
and  lake  ports,  many  miles  of  fine  water  power,  and  the 
sites  of  Chicago,  Rockford,  Freeport,  Galena,  Oregon, 
Dixon,  and  numerous  other  prosperous  cities. 

An  attempt  was  made  in  1836,  at  the  time  the  Terri- 
tory was  established,  to  secure  for  Wisconsin's  benefit 
the  old  east-and-west  line,  as  its  rightful  southern 
boundary.  But  Congress  declined  to  grant  this  request. 
Three  years  later,  the  Wisconsin  Territorial  legislature 
declared  that  "a  large  and  valuable  tract  of  country  is 
now  held  by  the  State  of  Illinois,  contrary  to  the  mani- 
fest right  and  consent  of  the  people  of  this  Territory." 

The  inhabitants  of  the  district  in  northern  Illinois 
which  was  claimed  by  Wisconsin,  were  invited  by  these 
resolutions  to  express  their  opinion  on  the  matter.  Pub- 
lic meetings  were  consequently  held  in  several  of  the 
Illinois  towns  interested;  and  resolutions  were  adopted, 
declaring  in  favor  of  the  Wisconsin  claim.  The  move- 
ment culminated  in  a  convention  at  Rockford  (July  6, 
1839),  attended  by  delegates  from  nine  of  the  four- 
teen Illinois  counties  involved.  This  convention  recom- 
mended the  counties  to  elect  delegates  to  a  convention 
to  be  held  in  Madison,  "for  the  purpose  of  adopting 
such  lawful  and  constitutional  measures  as  may  seem 
to  be  necessary  and  proper  for  the  early  adjustment  of 
the  southern  boundary." 


i66 

Curiously  enough,  the  weight  of  public  sentiment  in 
Wisconsin  itself  did  not  favor  the  movement.  At  a 
large  meeting  held  in  Green  Bay,  the  following  April, 
the  people  of  that  section  passed  resolutions  "  viewing 
the  resolutions  of  the  legislature  with  concern  and  re- 
gret," and  asking  that  they  be  rescinded.  With  this, 
popular  agitation  ceased  for  the  time;  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  the  legislature  promptly  defeated  a  proposi- 
tion for  the  renewal  of  the  question. 

Governor  Doty,  however,  was  a  stanch  advocate  of 
the  idea,  and  at  the  legislative  session  of  1842  contrived 
to  work  up  considerable  enthusiasm  in  its  behalf.  A 
bill  was  reported  by  the  committee  on  Territorial  affairs, 
asking  the  people  in  the  disputed  tract  to  hold  an  elec- 
tion on  the  question  of  uniting  with  Wisconsin.  There 
were  some  rather  fiery  speeches  upon  the  subject,  some 
of  the  orators  going  so  far  as  to  threaten  force  in  acquir- 
ing the  wished-for  strip ;  but  the  legislature  itself  took 
no  action.  However,  in  Stephenson  and  Boone  coun- 
ties, Illinois,  elections  were  actually  held,  at  which  all 
but  one  or  two  votes  were  cast  in  favor  of  the  Wiscon- 
sin claim. 

Governor  Doty,  thus  encouraged,  busily  continued 
his  agitation.  He  issued  proclamations  warning  Illi- 
nois that  it  was  "  exercising  an  accidental  and  tempo- 
rary jurisdiction  "  over  the  disputed  strip,  and  calling 
on  the  two  legislatures  to  authorize  the  people  to  vote 
on  the  question  of  restoring  Wisconsin  to  her  "  ancient 
limits."  At  first,  neither  the  legislatures  of  Illinois  nor 
Wisconsin  paid  much  attention  to  the  matter.  Finally, 
in  1843,  the  Wisconsin  legislature  sent  a  rather  war- 


1 6; 

like  address  to  Congress,  in  which  secession  was  clearly 
threatened,  unless  the  "  birthright  of  Wisconsin  "  were 
restored.  Congress,  however,  very  sensibly  paid  no 
heed  to  the  address,  and  gradually  the  excitement  sub- 
sided, until  eventually  Wisconsin  was  made  a  State, 
with  her  present  boundaries. 

We  have  seen  that  the  northern  peninsula  was  given 
to  Michigan  as  a  recompense  for  her  loss  of  Toledo  and 
Maumee  Bay.  But  when  it  became  necessary  to  deter- 
mine the  boundary  between  the  peninsula  and  the  new 
Territory  of  Wisconsin,  now  set  off  from  Michigan,  some 
difficulty  arose,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  country  had 
not  been  thoroughly  surveyed,  and  there  was  no  good 
map  of  it  extant. 

There  were  various  propositions ;  one  of  them  was,  to 
use  the  Chocolate  River  as  part  of  the  line ;  had  this 
prevailed,  Wisconsin  would  have  gained  the  greater 
part  of  the  peninsula.  But  the  line  of  division  at  last 
adopted  was  that  of  the  Montreal  and  Menominee 
rivers,  by  the  way  of  Lake  Vieux  Desert.  This  line 
had  been  selected  in  1834,  because  a  map  published 
that  year  represented  the  headwaters  of  those  rivers  as 
meeting  in  Lake  Vieux  Desert ;  hence  it  was  supposed 
by  the  congressional  committee  that  this  would  make 
an  ^excellent  natural  boundary.  When,  however,  the 
line  came  to  be  actually  laid  out  by  the  surveyors,  six 
years  later,  for  the  purpose  of  setting  boundary  monu- 
ments, it  was  discovered  that  Lake  Vieux  Desert  had 
no  connection  with  either  stream,  being,  in  fact,  the 
headwaters  of  the  Wisconsin  River;  and  that  the  run- 
ning of  the  line  through  the  woods,  between  the  far- 


1 68 

distant  headwaters  of  the  Montreal  and  Menominee, 
so  as  to  touch  the  lake  on  the  way,  involved  a  laborious 
task,  and  resulted  in  a  crooked  boundary.  But  it  was 
by  this  time  too  late  to  correct  the  geographical  error, 
and  the  awkward  boundary  thus  remains. 

As  originally  provided  by  the  Ordinance  of  1787, 
Wisconsin,  as  the  fifth  State  to  be  created  out  of  the 
Northwest  Territory,  was,  even  after  being  shorn  upon 
the  south  and  northeast,  at  least  entitled  to  have  as 
her  western  boundary  the  Mississippi  to  its  source,  and 
thence  a  straight  line  running  northward  to  the  Lake 
of  the  Woods  and  the  Canadian  boundary.  But  here 
again  she  was  to  suffer  loss  of  soil,  this  time  in  favor  of 
Minnesota. 

As  a  Territory,  Wisconsin  had  been  given  sway  over 
all  the  country  lying  to  the  west,  as  far  as  the  Mis- 
souri River.  In  1838,  all  beyond  the  Mississippi  was 
detached,  and  erected  into  the  Territory  of  Iowa.  Eight 
years  later,  when  Wisconsin  first  sought  to  be  a  State, 
the  question  arose  as  to  her  western  boundary.  Natu- 
rally, the  people  of  the  eastern  and  southern  sections 
wished  the  one  set  forth  in  the  ordinance.  But  settle- 
ments had  by  this  time  been  established  along  the 
Upper  Mississippi  and  in  the  St.  Croix  valley.  These 
were  far  removed  from  the  bulk  of  settlement  elsewhere 
in  Wisconsin,  and  had  neither  social  nor  business  inter- 
ests in  common  with  them.  The  people  of  the  north- 
west wished  to  be  released  from  Wisconsin,  in  order 
that  they  might  either  cast  their  fortunes  with  their 
near  neighbors  in  the  new  Territory  of  Minnesota,  or 
join  a  movement  just  then  projected  for  the  creation 


1 69 

of  an  entirely  new  State,  to  be  called  "Superior."  This 
proposed  state  was  to  embrace  all  the  country  north  of 
Mont  Trempealeau  and  east  of  the  Mississippi,  includ- 
ing the  entire  northern  peninsula,  if  the  latter  could  be 
obtained ;  thus  commanding  the  southern  and  western 
shores  of  Lake  Superior,  with  the  mouth  of  Green  Bay 
and  the  foot  of  Lake  Michigan  to  the  southeast. 

The  St.  Croix  representative  in  the  legislature  was 
especially  wedded  to  the  Superior  project.  He  pleaded 
earnestly  and  eloquently  for  his  people,  whose  progress, 
he  said,  would  be  "greatly  hampered  by  being  con- 
nected politically  with  a  country  from  which  they  are 
separated  by  nature,  cut  off  from  communication  by 
immense  spaces  of  wilderness  between."  A  memorial 
from  the  settlers  themselves  stated  the  case  with  even 
more  vigor,  asserting  that  they  were  "widely  separated 
from  the  settled  parts  of  Wisconsin,  not  only  by  hun- 
dreds of  miles  of  mostly  waste  and  barren  lands,  which 
must  remain  uncultivated  for  ages,  but  equally  so  by  a 
diversity  of  interests  and  character  in  the  population." 
All  of  this  reads  curiously  enough  in  these  days,  when 
the  intervening  wilderness  resounds  with  the  hum  of 
industry  and  "  blosso'ms  as  the  rose."  But  that  was 
long  before  the  days  of  railroads;  the  dense  forests  of 
central  and  western  Wisconsin  then  constituted  a  for- 
midable wilderness,  peopled  only  by  savages  and  wild 
beasts. 

Unable  to  influence  the  Wisconsin  legislature,- which 
stubbornly  contended  for  the  possession  of  the  original 
tract,  the  St.  Croix  people  next  urged  their  claims  upon 
Congress.  The  proposed  State  of  Superior  found  little 


favor  at  Washington,  but  there  was  a  general  feeling 
that  Wisconsin  would  be  much  too  large  unless  trimmed. 
The  result  was  that  when  she  was  finally  admitted  as 
a  State,  the  St.  Croix  River  was,  in  large  part,  made 
her  northwest  boundary ;  Minnesota  in  this  manner  ac- 
quired a  vast  stretch  of  country,  including  the  thriving 
city  of  St.  Paul. 

Wisconsin  was  thus  shorn  of  valuable  territory  on  the 
south,  to  please  Illinois;  on  the  northeast,  to  favor 
Michigan;  and  on  the* northwest,  that  some  of  her  set- 
tlers might  join  their  fortunes  with  Minnesota.  The 
State,  however,  is  still  quite  as  large  as  most  of  her 
sisters  in  the  Old  Northwest,  and  possesses  an  unusual 
variety  of  soils,  and  a  great  wealth  of  forests,  mines,  and 
fisheries.  There  is  a  strong  probability  that,  had  Con- 
gress, in  1848,  given  to  Wisconsin  her  "ancient  limits," 
as  defined  by  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  the  movement  to 
create  the  proposed  state  of  "Superior"  would  have 
gathered  strength  in  the  passing  years,  and  possibly 
would  have  achieved  success,  thus  depriving  us  of  our 
great  northern  forests  and  mines,  and  our  outlet  upon 
the  northern  lake. 


LIFE   IN    PIONEER   DAYS 

SO  long  as  the  fur  trade  remained  the  principal  busi- 
ness in  Wisconsin,  the  French  were  still  supreme 
at  Green  Bay  and  Prairie  du  Chien ;  and,  until  a  third 
of  the  nineteenth  century  had  passed  away,  there  ex- 
isted at  these  outposts  of  New  France  a  social  life 
which  smacked  of  the  "old  regime,"  bearing  more 
traces  of  seventeenth-century  Normandy  than  of  Puri- 
tan New  England.  With  the  decline  of  the  fur  trade,  a 
new  order  of  things  slowly  grew  up. 

There  being  little  legal  machinery  west  of  Lake 
Michigan,  before  Wisconsin  Territory  was  erected, 
local  government  was  slow  to  establish  itself.  Nothing 
but  the  good  temper  and  stout  common  sense  of  the 
people  prevented  anarchy,  under  such  a  condition  of 
affairs.  For  many  years,  the  few  public  enterprises 
were  undertaken  at  private  expense.  At  Green  Bay, 
schools  were  thus  conducted,  as  early  as  1817.  In  1821 
the  citizens  of  that  village  raised  a  fund  by  popular 
subscription,  and  built  a  jail ;  and  eleven  years  later, 
they  asked  the  legislature  of  Michigan  Territory  to 
pay  for  it.  There  were  some  Territorial  taxes  levied  in 
1817,  but  the  gathering  of  them  was  not  very  success- 
ful. The  first  county  to  levy  a  tax  was  Crawford,  of 
171 


172 

which  Prairie  du  Chien  was  the  seat,  but  considerable 
difficulty  appears  to  have  been  experienced  in  collect- 
ing the  money. 

Finally,  Wisconsin  Territory  was  organized,  and  the 
legislature  assembled  (1838)  in  Madison,  the  new  capi- 
tal. The  accommodations  at  that  raw  little  woodland 
village  were  meager,  even  for  pioneer  times.  The  Terri- 
torial building  of  stone,  and  a  few  rude  frame  and  log 
houses  in  the  immediate  neighborhood,  were  all  there 
was  of  the  infant  city.  Only  fifty  strangers  could  be 
decently  lodged  there,  and  a  proposition  to  adjourn  to 
Milwaukee  was  favored.  But  as  the  lake-shore  metrop- 
olis, also  a  small  village,  could  offer  no  better  accommo- 
dations, it  was  decided  to  stay  at  the  capital,  and  brave 
it  out  on  the  straw  and  hay  mattresses,  of  which,  how- 
ever, there  were  not  enough  to  supply  the  demand. 

This  was  long  before  railroads  had  reached  Wiscon- 
sin. Travel  through  the  new  Territory  was  by  boat, 
horseback,  or  a  kind  of  snow  sledge  called  a  "  French 
train."  There  were  no  roads,  except  such  as  had  been 
developed  from  the  old  deep-worn  Indian  trails  which 
interlaced  the  face  of  the  country,  and  traces  of  which 
can  still  be  seen  in  many  portions  of  the  State.  The 
pioneers  found  that  these  trails,  with  a  little  straighten- 
ing, often  followed  the  best  possible  routes  for  bridle 
paths  or  wagon  roads.  It  was  not  long  before  they 
were  being  used  by  long  lines  of  teams,  transporting 
smelted  lead  from  the  mines  of  southwest  Wisconsin  to 
the  Milwaukee  and  Galena  docks ;  on  the  return, 
they  carried  supplies  for  the  "  diggings,"  and  sawmill 
machinery  into  the  interior  forests.  Farmers'  wagons 


and  stagecoaches  followed  in  due  time.  Bridges  were 
but  slowly  built ;  the  unloaded  wagons  were  ferried 
across  rivers  in  Indian  "  dugout "  canoes,  the  horses 
swimming  behind,  and  the  freight  being  brought  over 
in  relays. 

In  1837  there  was  a  financial  crisis  throughout  the 
country,  and  this  checked  Western  immigration  for  a 
few  years.  But  there  was  not  enough  money  in  Wis- 
consin for  bank  failures  materially  to  affect  the  people ; 
so,  when  the  tide  of  settlement  again  flowed  hither,  the 
Badgers  were  as  strong  and  hopeful  as  ever. 

People  coming  to  Wisconsin  from  the  East  often 
traveled  all  the  way  in  their  own  wagons ;  or  would 
take  a  lake  boat  at  Buffalo,  and  then  proceed  by  water 
to  Detroit,  Green  Bay,  or  Chicago,  thence  journeying 
in  caravans  to  the  interior. 

Frontier  life,  in  those  days,  was  of  the  simplest  char- 
acter. The  immigrants  were  for  the  most  part  used  to 
hard  work  and  plain  fare.  Accordingly  the  privations 
of  their  new  surroundings  involved  relatively  little  hard- 
ship, although  sometimes  a  pioneer  farmer  was  fifty 
or  a  hundred  miles  from  a  gristmill,  a  store,  or  a  post 
office,  and  generally  his  highway  thither  was  but  a 
blazed  bridle  path  through  the  tangled  forest. 

Often  his  only  entertainments  throughout  the  year 
were  "bees"  for  raising  log  houses  or  barns  for  new- 
comers, and  on  these  occasions  all  the  settlers  for  scores 
of  miles  around  would  gather  in  a  spirit  of  helpful  com- 
radery.  Occasionally  the  mail  carrier,  either  afoot  or 
on  horseback,  would  wish  accommodation  over  night. 
Particularly  fortunate  was  the  man  who  maintained  a 


174 


river  ferry  at  the  crossing  of  some  much-frequented 
trail ;  he  could  have  frequent  chats  with  strangers,  and 
collect  stray  shillings  from  mail  carriers  or  other  trav- 
elers whose  business  led  them  through  the  wilderness. 

Often  the  new  settler  brought  considerable  flour  and 
salt  pork  with  him,  in  his  journey  to  the  West ;  but  it 
was  not  at  first  easy  to  get  a  fresh  supply.  Curiously 
enough,  although  in  the  midst  of  a  wild  abundance, 
civilized  man  at  the  outset  sometimes  suffered  for  the 
bare  necessaries  of  life.  As  soon,  however,  as  he  could 
garner  his  first  crop,  and  become  accustomed  to  the 
new  conditions,  he  was  usually  proof  against  disaster 
'  -f  of  this  kind ;  fish  and  game  were  so  abundant,  in 
their  season,  that  in  due  time  the  backwoodsman 
was  able  to  win  a  wholesome  livelihood  from  the 
storehouse  of  nature. 

Satisfactory  education   for  youth  was  a  plant    of 
comparatively  small  growth.     At  first  there 
was  not  enough   money  in  the   country   to 
pay  competent  teachers.     The  half-educated 
sons  and  daughters  of  the  pioneers 
taught   the  earliest  schools, 
often  upon  a  private  sub- 
scription basis;  text-books 
were  few,  appliances 
generally  wanting, 
and  the  results 
were,  for  many 
years,  far  from 
satisfactory.  As 
for  spiritual  in- 


struction,  this  was  given  by  itinerant  missionary  preach- 
ers and  priests,  of  various  denominations,  who  braved 
great  hardships  while  making  their  rounds  on  horse- 
back or  afoot,  and  deserve  to  rank  among  the  most 
daring  of  the  pioneer  class.  In  due  time  churches  and 
schools  were  firmly  established  throughout  the  Territory. 

In  addition  to  these  farmer  colonists,  there  came 
many  young  professional  and  business  men,  chiefly 
from  New  York  and  New  England,  seeking  an  open- 
ing in  the  new  Territory  for  the  acquisition  of  fame 
and  wealth.  Many  of  these  were  men  of  marked 
ability,  with  high  ambition  and  progressive  ideas,  who 
soon  took  prominent  part  in  molding  public  opinion 
in  the  young  Wisconsin.  There  are,  all  things  con- 
sidered, no  abler,  more  forceful  men  in  the  Wisconsin 
of  to-day  than  were  some  of  those,  now  practically  all 
passed  away,  who  shaped  her  destinies  in  the  fourth 
and  fifth  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  sessions  of  the  legislature  were  the  principal 
events  of  the  year.  Prominent  men  from  all  over 
Wisconsin  were  each  winter  attracted  to  Madison,  as 
legislators,  lobbyists,  or  visitors,  crowding  the  primitive 
little  hotels  and  indulging  in  rather  boisterous  gayety; 
for  humor  in  those  pioneer  days  was  often  uncouth. 
There  was  overmuch  "horseplay,"  hard  drinking,  and 
profanity ;  and  now  and  then,  as  the  result  of  a  warm 
discussion,  a  tussle  with  fists  and  canes. 

The  newspapers  were  given  to  rude  personal  attacks 
upon  their  enemies;  one  would  suppose,  to  read  the 
columns  of  the  old  journals,  that  editors  thought  it 
their  chief  business  in  life  to  carry  on  a  wordy,  bitter 


quarrel  with  some  rival  editor  or  politician.  But  this 
was  largely  on  the  surface,  for  effect.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  strong  attachments  between  men  were  more  fre- 
quent then  than  now.  There  was  a  deal  of  dancing 
and  miscellaneous  merrymaking  at  these  legislative 
sessions ;  and  travelers  have  left  us,  in  their  letters 
and  journals,  statements  which  show  that  they  greatly 
relished  the  experience  of  tarrying  there  on  their 
winter  journeys  across  the  Territory,  and  of  being 
entertained  by  the  good-hearted  villagers. 

Pioneers,  in  their  stories  of  those  early  years,  are 
fond  of  calling  them  the  "  good  old  times,"  and  styling 
present  folk  and  manners  degenerate.  No  doubt  there 
was  a  certain  charm  in  the  rude  simplicity  of  frontier 
life,  but  there  were,  as  well,  great  inconveniences  and 
rude  discomforts,  with  which  few  pioneers  of  our  day 
would  wish  to  be  confronted,  after  having  tasted  the 
pleasures  arising  from  the  wealth  of  conveniences  of 
every  sort  which  distinguishes  these  latter  days.  As 
far  back  in  time  as  human  records  go,  we  ever  find 
old  men  bewailing  prevalent  degeneracy,  and  sighing  in 
vain  for  "  the  good  old  times  "  when  they  were  young. 
It  is  a  blessing  given  to  the  old  that  the  disagree- 
able incidents  of  their  youth  should  be  forgotten,  and 
only  the  pleasant  events  remembered.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  we  of  to-day  may  well  rejoice  that,  while  Wiscon- 
sin enjoyed  a  lusty  youth,  she  has  now,  in  the  fullness 
of  time,  grown  into  a  great  and  ambitious  common- 
wealth, lacking  nothing  that  her  sisters  own,  in  all  that 
makes  for  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  her  people. 


THE    DEVELOPMENT   OF    ROADS 

WHEN  white  men  first  came  to  our  land,  the 
Indian  trails  formed  a  network  of  narrow,  deep- 
sunken  paths  over  the  face  of  the  country,  as  they  con- 
nected village  with  village,  and  these  with  the  hunting 
and  fishing  resorts  of  the  aborigines.  Many  of  the 
most  important  trails  simply  followed  the  still  earlier 
tracks  of  the  buffalo,  which  in  great  herds  wandered 
from  plain  to  plain,  in  search  of  forage,  or  in  hiding 
from  man,  through  the  dark  forest  and  over  the  hills. 
The  buffalo  possessed  an  unerring  instinct  for  selecting 
the  best  places  for  a  road,  high  ridges  overlooking  the 
lowlands,  and  the  easy  slopes  of  hills.  In  the  Far 
West,  they  first  found  the  passes  over  the  Rockies,  just 
as,  still  earlier,  they  crossed  the  Alleghanies  by  the 
most  favorable  routes. 

The  Indian  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  the  buffalo, 
both  to  pursue  him  as  game,  and  better  to  penetrate 
the  wilderness.  The  white  man  followed  the  well- 
defined  Indian  trail,  first  on  foot,  then  on  horseback ; 
next  (after  straightening  and  widening  the  curving 
path),  by  freight  wagon  and  by  stagecoach ;  and  then, 
many  years  later,  the  railway  engineer  often  found  his 
best  route  by  the  side  of  the  developed  buffalo  track, 

STO.    OF   BADGER    STA.  —  12         177 


1 78 

especially  in  crossing  the  mountain  ranges.  The  Union 
Pacific  and  the  Southern  Pacific  railways  are  notable 
examples  of  lines  which  have  simply  followed  well- 
worn  overland  roads,  which  were  themselves  but  the 
transcontinental  buffalo  paths  of  old. 

An  interesting  story  might  be  written  concerning  the 
development  of  the  principal  Indian  trails  in  Wisconsin 
into  the  wagon  roads  of  the  pioneers,  and  some  of  these 
into  the  military  roads  made  by  the  federal  government 
for  the  marching  of  troops  between  the  frontier  forts. 
Without  fairly  good  roads,  at  least  during  the  winter 
and  summer  months,  it  would  have  been  impossible  for 
Wisconsin  to  grow  into  a  great  State ;  for  good  roads 
are  necessary  to  enable  settlers,  tools,  and  supplies  to 
get  into  the  country,  and  to  afford  an  outlet  for  crops. 
For  this  reason,  in  any  newly  settled  region,  one  of  the 
first  duties  of  the  people  is  to  make  roads  and  bridges. 

We  have  still  much  to  do  in  Wisconsin,  before  we 
can  have  such  highways  as  they. possess  in  the  old 
eastern  States.  In  many  parts  of  our  State,  the  coun- 
try roads  in  the  rainy  seasons  are  of  little  credit  to  us. 
But  the  worst  of  them  are  much  better  than  were  some 
of  the  best  in  pioneer  days,  and  some  of  our  principal 
thoroughfares  between  the  larger  cities  are  fairly  good. 

The  federal  government  set  a  good  example  by  hav- 
ing its  soldiers  build  several  military  roads,  especially 
between  Forts  Howard  (Green  Bay),  Winnebago  (Port- 
age), and  Crawford  (Prairie  du  Chien).  In  Territorial 
and  early  Statehood  days,  charters  were  granted  by  the 
legislature  for  the  building  and  maintenance  of  certain 
tollroads  between  large  towns ;  some  of  these  were 


179 

paved  with  gravel  or  broken  stone,  others  with  planks. 
Many  of  the  plank  roads  remained  in  use  until  about 
1875;  but  before  that  date  all  highways  became  the 
property  of  the  public,  and  tollgates  were  removed. 
Bridges  charging  tolls  are  still  in  use  in  some  parts  of 
the  State,  where  the  people  have  declined  to  tax  them- 
selves for  a  public  bridge,  which  therefore  has  been 
built  by  a  private  company  in  consideration  of  the  priv- 
ilege of  collecting  tolls  from  travelers. 

Early  in  the  year  when  Wisconsin  Territory  was 
erected  (1836),  and  while  it  was  still  attached  to  Michi- 
gan Territory,  there  was  a  strong  movement,  west  of 
Lake  Michigan,  in  favor  of  a  railway  between  Mil- 
waukee and  Prairie  du  Chien,  connecting  the  lake  with 
the  Mississippi  River.  Congress  was  petitioned  by  the 
legislative  council  of  Michigan  to  make  an  appropria- 
tion to  survey  the  proposed  line.  There  were  as  yet 
very  few  agricultural  settlers  along  the  route ;  the  chief 
business  of  the  road  was  to  be  the  shipment  of  lead 
from  the  mines  of  the  southwest  to  the  Milwaukee 
docks ;  thence  it  was  to  be  carried  by  vessels  to  Buffalo, 
and  sent  forward  in  boats,  over  the  Erie  Canal,  to  the 
Hudson  River  and  New  York. 

This  was  in  January  ;  in  the  September  following, 
after  Wisconsin  Territory  had  been  formed,  a  public 
meeting  was  held  in  Milwaukee,  to  petition  the  Territorial 
legislature  to  pass  an  act  incorporating  a  company  to 
construct  the  proposed  lead-mine  road,  upon  a  survey 
to  be  made  at  the  expense  of  the  United  States,  and 
there  was  even  some  talk  of  another  road  to  the  far- 
away wilderness  of  Lake  Superior. 


i  So 

But  this  early  railway  project  was  premature.  Wis- 
consin had  then  but  twenty-two  thousand  inhabitants, 
and  Milwaukee  was  a  small  frontier  village.  Then 
again,  railroading  in  the  United  States  was  still  in  its 
infancy.  In  Pennsylvania  there  was  a  small  line, 
hardly  better  than  an  old-fashioned  horse  car  track, 
over  which  a  wheezy  little  locomotive  slowly  made 
occasional  trips,  and  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railway 
had  not  long  before  experimented  with  sails  as  a  motive 
power.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  Congress 
acted  slowly  in  regard  to  the  overambitious  Wisconsin 
project,  and  that  it  was  nearly  fourteen  and  a  half  years 
before  a  railway  was  actually  opened  in  this  State. 

Indeed,  many  people  thought  at  that  time  that 
canals,  costing  less  in  construction  and  in  operation, 
were  more  serviceable  for  Wisconsin  than  railways. 
The  people  of  northern  Wisconsin  were  particularly 
eager  for  canals ;  in  the  southern  part,  railways  were 
most  popular.  The  most  important  canal  project  was 
that  known  as  the  Fox  and  Wisconsin  rivers  improve- 
ment. From  the  earliest  historic  times,  these  two 
opposite-flowing  rivers,  whose  waters  approach  within 
a  mile  and  a  half  of  each  other  at  Portage,  had  been 
used  as  a  boat  route  between  the  Great  Lakes  and  the 
Mississippi  River.  We  have  seen,  in  preceding  chap- 
ters, what  an  important  part  was  played  by  this 
route  in  the  early  history  of  Wisconsin.  But  when 
large  vessels  became  necessary  to  the  trade  of  the 
region,  and  steam  navigation  was  introduced,  it  was 
found  that  the  historic  water  way  presented  many  prac- 
tical difficulties :  the  Fox  abounds  in  rapids  below 


Lake  Winnebago,  and  in  its  upper  waters  is  very 
shallow;  the  Wisconsin  is  troubled  with  shifting  sand 
bars.  In  order  to  accommodate  the  traffic,  a  canal 
was  necessary  along  the  portage  path,  and  extensive 
improvements  in  both  rivers  were  essential. 


! 


As  early  as  1839,  Congress  was  asked  to  aid  in 
this  work,  and  from  time  to  time  such  aid  has  been 
given.  But,  although  several  millions  of  dollars  have, 
through  all  these  years,  been  spent  upon  the  two 
streams,  there  has  been  no  important  modern  naviga- 
tion through  them  between  the  Great  Lakes  and  the 
great  river.  The  chief  result  has  been  the  admirable 
system  of  locks  between  Lake  Winnebago  and  Green 


182 

Bay,  making  available  the  splendid  water  power  of  the 
lower  valley  of  the  Fox. 

Another  water  way  project  was  that  of  the  Milwau- 
kee and  Rock  River  Canal.  This  was  designed  to 
connect  the  waters  of  the  Milwaukee  and  Rock  rivers, 
thereby  providing  an  additional  way  for  vessels  to  pass 
from  Lake  Michigan  to  the  Mississippi.  A  company 
was  incorporated,  with  a  capital  of  a  million  dollars,  and 
Congress  made  a  large  grant  of  land  to  Wisconsin  Terri- 
tory. But  after  some  years  of  uncertainty  and  heavy 
expense  the  project  was  abandoned  as  impracticable. 

The  Territorial  legislature  began  to  charter  railway 
companies  as  early  as  1836,  but  the  Milwaukee  and 
Mississippi  was  the  first  road  actually  built.  The  track 
was  laid  in  1851  and  a  train  was  run  out  to  Waukesha, 
a  distance  of  twenty  miles.  In  1856  the  line  reached 
the  Mississippi.  This  was  the  modest  beginning  of 
the  Chicago,  Milwaukee,  and  St.  Paul  system. 

The  Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railway  entered  Wis- 
consin from  Chicago  about  the  same  time  (1855). 
Numerous  small  lines  were  built  before  the  War  of 
Secession,  nearly  all  of  them  being  soon  swallowed 
up  by  the  larger  companies.  During  the  war,  there 
was  stagnation  in  railway  building,  but  when  peace  .was 
declared  there  was  renewed  activity,  and  to-day  Wis- 
consin is  as  well  provided  with  good  railways  as  any 
State  of  its  size  and  population  in  the  Union. 


THE   PHALANX   AT   CERESCO 

IN  the  fourth  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  there 
was  much  agitation,  both  in  France  and  America, 
over  the  teachings  of  a  remarkable  man  named  Fran- 
^ois  Marie  Charles  Fourier.  He  claimed  that  if  people 
would  band  themselves  together  in  communities,  in  the 
proper  spirit  of  mutual  forbearance  and  helpfulness, 
and  upon  plans  laid  down  by  him,  it  would  be  proved 
that  they  could  get  along  very  well  with  no  strife  of  any 
sort,  either  in  business,  or  religion,  or  politics.  Then, 
if  the  nations  would  but*  unite  themselves  in  the  same 
way,  universal  peace  would  reign. 

During  the  stirring  times  of  the  French  Revolution 
and  of  the  great  Napoleon,  there  had  been  much  social 
agitation  of  the  violent  sort.  A  reaction  had  'come. 
The  talk  about  the  rights  of  man  was  no  longer  con- 
fined to  the  violent,  revengeful  element  of  the  popula- 
tion ;  it  was  now  chiefly  heard  among  the  good  and 
gentle  folk,  among  men  of  wealth  and  benevolence, 
as  well  as  those  of  learning  and  poverty. 

In  France,  Fourier  was  the  leader  among  this  new 

class  of  socialists.     In  France,  England,  and  Holland, 

colonies  more  or  less   after  the    Fourier   model   were 

established ;  and  it  was  not  long  before   communities 

183 


1 84 

came  to  be  founded  in  the  United  States.  The  most 
famous  of  these  latter  was  Brook  Farm,  in  Massachu- 
setts, because  among  its  members  were  several  well- 
known  authors  and  scientists,  who  wrote  a  great  deal 
about  their  experiences  there.  But  the  only  commu- 
nity in  America  conducted  strictly  on  Fourier's  plan, 
flourished  in  Wisconsin. 

The  New  York  Tribune,  edited  by  Horace  Greeley, 
a  noted  reformer,  was  earnest  in  advocating  Fourierism, 
as  it  was  called,  doing  much  to  attract  attention  to 
"the  principle  of  equitable  distributions."  One  of  the 
many  readers  of  the  Tribune  was  Warren  Chase,  of 
Kenosha,  a  young  New  Hampshire  man,  thirty  years 
of  age,  who  became  much  attached  to  the  new  idea. 

This  was  during  the  winter  of  1843-44.  Chase 
gathered  about  him  at  Kenosha  a  group  of  intelligent 
men  and  women,  some  of  whom  had  property,  and  they 
formed  a  stock  company,  incorporated  under  the  laws 
of  Wisconsin  Territory,  but  based  strictly  on  the  plans 
laid  down  by  Fourier. 

Having  purchased  six  hundred  acres  of  government 
land,  in  a  gentle  valley  within  the  present  Ripon  town- 
ship, in  Fond  du  Lac  county,  nineteen  pioneers,  led  by 
Chase,  made  their  way  thither  in  May.  There  were 
no  railroads  in  those  days,  and  the  little  company  pro- 
ceeded overland  through  flower-decked  prairies,  and 
over  wooded  hills,  in  oxcarts  and  horse  wagons,  with 
droves  of  cattle,  and  tools  and  utensils. 

The  reformers  called  their  colony  "Ceresco,"  after 
Ceres,  the  goddess  of  agriculture.  Plowing  was  com- 
menced, buildings  were  erected,  shops  and  forges  estab- 


i85 

lished.  Very  soon  some  two  hundred  men,  women,  and 
children  had  arrived,  and  in  due  time  many  branches 
of  industry  were  in  full  operation. 

The  Ceresco  community  was,  as  suggested  by  Fou- 
rier, styled  a  "  phalanx."  The  members  were  classi- 
fied, according  to  their  capacity  to  labor,  in  educational, 
mechanical,  and  agricultural  series,  each  series  being 
divided  into  groups.  The  government  was  headed  by 
a  president  and  nine  councilors ;  each  series  had  a 
chairman,  and  each  group  a  foreman. 

Labor  was  voluntary,  the  shops  being  owned  by  the 
community  at  large;  while  the  land  was  divided  equally 
among  all  the  members,  old  and  young,  save  that  no 
family  might  possess  over  forty  acres.  As  the  com- 
munity grew,  more  land  was  purchased  for  their  use. 
The  council  laid  out  the  work  to  be  done,  or  the  policy 
to  be  pursued.  When  there  was  a  question  to  be 
decided,  the  series  interested  voted  upon  it ;  but  in 
some  important  cases,  the  matter  was  referred  for  final 
action  to  the  several  groups.  Each  person  received 
pay  according  to  his  value  as  a  worker,  the  record 
being  kept  by  the  foreman  of  his  group.  They  were 
not  paid  upon  the  same  scale ;  for  instance,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  council  and  the  school-teachers  received 
more  than  skilled  mechanical  laborers,  and  these  in 
turn  more  than  ordinary  workmen. 

The  phalanx  at  first  lived  in  temporary  quarters,  and 
a  year  later  erected  a  large  building  "  four  hundred  feet 
in  length,  consisting  of  two  rows  of  tenements,  with 
a  hall  between,  under  one  roof."  Each  family  lived 
in  its  own  compartments,  but  all  ate  in  common  at 


1 86 

a  boarding  house  called  the  "  phalanstery,"  where  a 
charge  was  made  of  seventy-five  cents  a  week  for 
each  person.  The  "unitary"  was  a  large  building 
used  for  business  and  social  meetings,  these  being 
held  in  the  evenings  ;  each  Tuesday  evening  the  liter- 
ary and  debating  club  met,  Wednesday  evening  the 
singing  school,  and  Thursday  evening  a  dancing  party. 

Unlike  many  other  communities,  the  Fourier  colonies 
were  not  religious  in  character.  Each  member  of  the 
phalanx  at  Ceresco  might  worship  as  he  pleased.  At 
various  times,  for  the  membership  fluctuated  somewhat, 
ministers  of  different  denominations  were  members  of 
the  colony,  and  frequently  there  were  visits  from  wan- 
dering missionaries. 

None  of  the  colonists  were  allowed  to  use  intoxicat- 
ing liquors  as  a  beverage.  There  must  be  no  vulgar 
language,  swearing,  or  gambling ;  and  one  of  the 
by-laws  commanded  that  "  censoriousness  and  fault- 
finding, indolence,  abuse  of  cattle  or  horses,  hunting  or 
fishing  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  shall  be  deemed 
misdemeanors,  and  shall  be  punishable  by  reprimand  or 
expulsion."  These  punishments  were  the  only  ones 
which  the  community  could  inflict  upon  its  members, 
for  it  had  no  judicial  powers  under  the  law. 

But  there  was  small  need  of  punishments  at  Ceresco. 
Its  members  were,  as  a  rule,  men  and  women  of  most 
excellent  character.  There  was  never  any  dishonesty, 
or  other  serious  immorality,  within  the  phalanx ;  the 
few  neighboring  settlers  regarded  the  reformers  with 
genuine  respect.  All  the  proceedings  of  the  community 
were  open,  and  its  carefully  kept  accounts  and  records 


might  be  inspected  by  any  one  at  any  time.  When- 
ever charges  were  brought  against  a  member,  they 
were  laid  before  the  full  assembly  at  the  next  weekly 
meeting ;  a  week  elapsed  before  consideration,  in  order 
to  give  ample  opportunity  for  defense  ;  then  the  entire 
body  of  colonists,  women  as  well  as  men,  voted  on 
the  question,  acquitting  the  offender  or  reprimanding 
him  or,  by  a  two-thirds  vote,  expelling  him  from  the 
phalanx. 

Wisconsin  was  then  sparsely  settled  at  best ;  the 
peaceful  little  valley  of  Ceresco  was  equally  far  re- 
moved from  the  centers  of  population  at  Green  Bay 
and  in  the  southern  portion  of  the  Territory.  Yet  many 
pioneers  came  toiling  over  the  country,  to  apply  for  ad- 
mission to  this  Garden  of  Eden.  But  it  is  recorded 
that  not  one  in  four  was  taken  into  fellowship,  for  the 
phalanx  desired  "  no  lazy,  shiftless,  ne'er-do-well  mem- 
bers," and  only  those  believed  to  be  wise,  industrious, 
and  benevolent  were  taken  into  the  fold. 

And  thus  the  Ceresco  phalanx  seemed  mightily  to 
prosper.  Its  stock  earned  good  dividends,  its  property 
was  in  excellent  condition,  the  quality  of  its  member- 
ship could  not  be  bettered.  Far  and  near  were  its 
praises  sung.  The  New  York  Tribune  gave  weekly 
news  of  its  doings,  and  was  ever  pointing  to  it  as 
worthy  of  emulation  ;  the  Brook  Farm  paper  hailed  it 
as  proof  that  socialism  had  at  last  succeeded. 

Had  each  member  been  equally  capable  with  his  fel- 
lows, had  the  families  been  of  the  same  size,  had  there 
been  no  jealousies,  no  bickerings,  had  these  good  folk 
been  without  ambition,  had  they,  in  short,  been  con- 


1 88 

tented,  the  phalanx  might  have  remained  a  success. 
They  were  clothed,  fed,  and  housed  at  less  expense 
than  were  outsiders  ;  they  had  many  social  enjoyments 
not  known  elsewhere  in  the  valley  ;  and,  according  to 
all  the  philosophers,  should  have  been  a  happy  people. 

The  public  table,  the  public  amusement  rooms,  and 
all  that,  had  at  first  a  spice  of  pleasant  novelty  ;  but 
soon  there  was  a  realization  that  this  had  not  the 
charm  of  home  life,  that  one's  family  affairs  were  too 
much  the  affairs  of  all.  The  strong  and  the  willing 
saw  that  they  were  yoked  to  those  who  were  weak  and 
slothful  ;  there  was  no  chance  for  natural  abilities  to 
assert  themselves,  no  reward  for  individual  excellence. 

Wisconsin  became  a  State  in  1848.  Everywhere, 
ambitious  and  energetic  citizens  in  the  rapidly  growing 
commonwealth  were  making  a  great  deal  of  money 
through  land  speculations  and  the  planting  of  new  in- 
dustries, everywhere  but  in  Ceresco,  where  the  com- 
munity life  allowed  no  man  to  rise  above  the  common 
level.  The  California  gold  fields,  opened  the  following 
year,  also  sorely  tempted  the  young  men.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  phalanx  found  themselves  hampered  by 
their  bond.  Caring  no  longer  for  the  reformation  of 
society,  they  eagerly  clamored  to  get  back  into  the 
whirl  of  that  struggle  for  existence  which,  only  a  few 
years  before,  they  had  voted  so  unnecessary  to  human 
welfare. 

In  1850  the  good  folk  at  Ceresco  voted  unanimously, 
and  in  the  best  of  feeling  toward  one  another,  to  dis- 
band their  colony.  They  sold  their  lands  at  a  fair 
profit  to  each  ;  and  very  soon,  in  the  rush  for  wealth 


189 

and  for  a.  chance  to  exercise  their  individual  powers, 
were  widely  distributed  over  the  face  of  the  country. 
Some  of  them  ultimately  won  much  worldly  success; 
others  fell  far  below  the  level  of  prosperity  maintained 
in  the  phalanx,  and  came  to  bemoan  the  "  good  old 
days  "  of  the  social  community,  when  the  strong  were 
obliged  to  bolster  the  weak. 


A   MORMON    KING 

IN  the  year  1843  there  came  from  New  York  to  the 
village  of  Burlington,  Racine  county,  an  eccentric 
young  lawyer  named  James  Jesse  Strang.  Originally 
a  farmer's  boy,  he  had  been  a  country  school-teacher, 
a  newspaper  editor,  and  a  temperance  lecturer,  as  well 
as  a  lawyer.  Possessed  of  an  uneasy,  ambitious  spirit, 
he  had  wandered  much,  and  changed  his  occupation 
with  apparent  ease.  Strang  was  passionately  fond  of 
reading,  was  gifted  with  a  remarkable  memory,  and  de- 
veloped a  fervent,  persuasive  style  of  oratory,  which  he 
delighted  in  employing.  He  often  astonished  the  courts 
by  the  shrewd  eloquence  with  which  he  supported 
strange,  unexpected  points  in  law.  It  is  related  of  him 
that,  soon  after  he  came  to  Wisconsin,  he  brought  a 
suit  to  recover  the  value  of  honey  which,  he  claimed, 
had  been  stolen  from  his  client's  hives  by  the  piratical 
bees  of  a  neighbor,  and  his  arguments  were  so  plausi- 
ble that  he  nearly  won  his  case. 

In  less  than  a  year  after  his  arrival  in  Burlington, 
the  village  was  visited  by  some  Mormon  missionaries. 
They  came  from  Nauvoo,  Illinois,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Mississippi  River,  where  there  was  a  settlement  of  so- 
called  Latter-Day  Saints,  who  lived  under  the  sway  of 
190 


a  designing  knave  named  Joseph  Smith.  Strang  at 
once  became  a  convert,  and  entered  into  the  movement 
with  such  earnestness  that,  with  his  oratory,  his  abil- 
ity to  manage  men,  and  his  keen  zest  for  notoriety,  he 
became  one  of  the  most  prominent  followers  of  the 
faith. 

Six  months  after  Strang's  conversion,  Joseph  Smith, 
the  president  and  prophet  of  the  Mormons,  was  killed 
by  an  Illinois  mob.  At  once  there  arose  a  desperate 
strife  among  the  leaders,  for  the  successorship  to  Jo- 
seph. Two  of  the  number,  Brigham  Young  and  Strang, 
were  men  of  ability,  and  the  contest  soon  narrowed 
down  to  them.  Young  had  the  powerful  support  of 
the  council  of  the  church,  known  as  "  the  twelve  apos- 
tles "  ;  but  Strang  produced  a  letter  said  to  have  been 
written  by  Joseph  just  before  his  death,  in  which 
Strang  was  named  as  his  successor,  with  directions  to 
lead  the  Mormons  to  a  new  "  city  of  promise  "  in  Wis- 
consin, to  be  called  "Voree." 

The  "  apostles "  at  Nauvoo  denounced  Strang  as 
an  impostor,  declared  that  his  letter  was  a  forgery, 
and  attacked  him  bitterly  in  their  official  newspapers, 
published  at  Nauvoo  and  at  Liverpool,  England.  But 
Strang  was  not  easily  put  down.  A  great  many  of 
the  fanatics  at  Nauvoo  believed  in  this  impetuous 
young  leader,  who  defended  his  cause  with  tact  and 
forceful  eloquence ;  and  for  a  time  it  looked  as  if  he 
might  win. 

However,  in  the  end  the  "apostles"  had  their  way, 
and  the  adroit  Young  was  elected  to  the  headship  of 
the  church.  Strang  at  once  called  forth  his  followers, 


192 

and  in  April,  1845,  planted  the  "City  of  Voree  "  upon 
a  prairie  by  the  side  of.  White  River,  in  Walworth 
county,  Wisconsin.  It  soon  became  a  town  of  nearly 
two  thousand  inhabitants,  who  owned  all  things  in  com- 
mon, but  were  ruled  over,  even  in  the  smallest  affairs 
of  life,  by  the  wily  President  Strang,  who  claimed  to 
be  divinely  instructed  in  every  detail  of  his  rigorous 
government. 

The  people  dwelt  "  in  plain  houses,  in  board  shanties, 
in  tents,  and  sometimes,  many  of  them,  in  the  open  air." 
Great  meetings  were  held  at  Voree,  and  the  surround- 
ing settlers  gathered  to  hear  Strang  and  his  twelve 
"apostles"  lay  down  the  law,  and  tell  of  the  revelations 
which  had  been  delivered  to  them  by  the  Almighty. 
Strang,  who  closely  imitated  the  methods  of  Joseph, 
pretended  to  discover  the  word  of  God  in  deep-hidden 
records.  Joseph  had  found  the  Book  of  Mormon 
graven  upon  plates  dug  out  of  the  hill  of  Cumorah,  in 
New  York;  so  Strang  discovered  buried  near  Voree 
similar  brazen  plates  bearing  revelations,  written  in  the 
rhythmic  style  of  the  Scriptures,  which  supplemented 
those  in  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

President  Strang  was  a  very  busy  man  as  the  head 
of  the  Voree  branch  of  the  Mormon  church.  He  ob- 
tained a  printing  outfit,  and  published  a  little  weekly 
paper  called  Gospel  Herald,  besides  hundreds  of  pam- 
phlets, all  written  by  himself,  in  which  he  assailed  the 
"  Brighamites "  in  the  same  violent  manner  as  they 
attacked  him  in  their  numerous  publications.  He  also, 
with  his  missionaries,  conducted  meetings  in  Ohio,  New 
York,  and  other  States  in  the  East,  gathering  converts 


193 

for  Voree,  and  boldly  repelling  the  wordy  attacks  of 
the  Brighamites,  whose  agents  were  working  the  same 
fields. 

Despite  some  backslidings,  and  occasional  quarrels 
within  its  ranks,  Voree  grew  and  prospered.  By  1849 
there  was  a  partially  built  stone  temple  there,  which  is 
thus  described  by  an  imaginative  letter  writer  of  the 
time :  "  It  covers  two  and  one-sixth  acres  of  ground, 
has  twelve  towers,  and  the  great  hall  two  hundred  feet 
square  in  the  center.  The  entire  walls  are  eight  feet 
through,  the  floors  and  roofs  are  to  be  marble,  and  when 
finished  it  will  be  the  grandest  building  in  the  world." 

Nevertheless,  it  was  early  seen  by  Strang  that  the 
growing  opposition  of  neighboring  settlers  would  in 
the  end  cause  the  Mormons  to  leave  Wisconsin,  just 
as  the  Nauvoo  fanatics  were  compelled  (in  1846)  to  flee 
from  Illinois,  to  plant  their  stake  in  the  wilderness  of  the 
Far  West. 

He  therefore  made  preparations  for  a  place  of  refuge 
for  his  people,  when  persecutions  should  become  unbear- 
able. In  journeying  by  vessel,  upon  one  of  his  missions, 
he  had  taken  note  of  the  isolation  of  an  archipelago  of 
large,  beautiful,  well-wooded  islands  near  the  foot  of 
Lake  Michigan.  The  month  of  May,  1846,  found  him 
with  four  companions  upon  Beaver  Island,  in  this  far- 
away group.  They  built  a  log  cabin,  arranged  for  a 
boat,  and  returned  to  Voree  to  prepare  for  the  migration 
of  the  faithful. 

The  new  colony  at  first  grew  slowly,  but  by  the  sum- 
mer of  1849  the  "saints"  began  to  arrive  in  goodly 
numbers.  Strang  himself  now  headed  the  settlement; 

STO.   OF   BADGER    STA.  —  13 


194 


and  thereafter  Voree  ceased  to  be  headquarters  for  the 
"  Primitive  Mormons,"  as  they  called  themselves, 
although  a  few  remained  in  the  neighborhood. 

Very  soon,  about  two  thousand  devotees  were 
gathered  within  the  "  City  of  St.  James,"  on  Beaver 
Island,  with  well-tilled  farms,  neat  houses,  a  sawmill, 
roads,  docks,  and  a  large  temple.  A  hill  near  by  they 
renamed  Mount  Pisgah,  and  a  River  Jordan  and  a  Sea 
of  Galilee  were  not  far  away. 

One  beautiful  day  in  July,  1850,  Strang,  arrayed  in  a 
robe  of  bright  red,  was,  with  much  ceremony,  crowned 
by  his  "  apostles "  as  "  King  of  the  Kingdom  of  St. 
James."  Foreign  ambassadors  were  appointed,  and  a 
royal  press  was  set  up,  for  the  flaying  of  his  enemies. 
Schools  and  debating  clubs  were  opened ;  the  com- 
munity system  was  abolished ;  tithes  were  collected  for 
the  support  of  the  government;  tea,  coffee,  and  tobacco 
were  prohibited ;  and  even  the  dress  of  the  people  was 
regulated  by  law.  Never  was  there  a  king  more  abso- 
lute than  Strang;  doubtless,  for  a  time,  he  thought 
his  dream  of  empire  realized  at  last,  and  that  here  in 
this  unknown  corner  of  the  world  the  "  saints  "  might 
remain  forever  unmolested. 

sylvan   archipelago,   and   Beaver 
Island  itself,  had  other  inhabit- 
ants;   these   were    rude, 
sturdy,  illiterate  fisher- 
men,   who    lived    in 
huts  along  the  coast, 
and    had    little    pa- 
:    tience  with  the  fan- 


•7 


tastic  performances  of  their  neighbors,  King  Strang 
and  the  court  of  St.  James.  His  majesty  had,  also, 
jealous  enemies  among  his  own  subjects. 

Trouble  soon  ensued.  The  fishermen  frequently 
assaulted  the  "  saints,"  and  carried  on  a  petty  warfare 
against  the  colony  at  large,  in  which  the  county  sheriff 
was  soon  engaged ;  for  false  charges  came  to  be  entered 
against  these  strange  but  inoffensive  people,  and  they 
were  now  and  then  thrown  into  jail.  The  king,  there- 
upon, in  self-defence,  "went  into  politics."  Having  so 
many  votes  at  his  command,  he  easily  secured  the  elec- 
tion of  Mormons  to  all  the  county  offices,  and  of  him- 
self to  the  legislature  of  Michigan. 

But  despite  these  victories  over  outside  foes,  matters 
at  home  went  from  bad  to  worse.  The  enemies  in  his 
camp  multiplied,  for  his  increasingly  despotic  rule  gave 
them  abundance  of  grievances.  At  last,  about  the  mid- 
dle of  June,  1856,  two  of  the  malcontents  shot  their 
monarch  from  behind.  He  was  taken  by  vessel  to  his 
old  home  in  Voree,  where  he  was  tenderly  cared  for 
until  his  death,  a  month  later,  by  his  poor,  neglected 
wife,  who  had  remained  behind  when  he  went  forth  to 
the  island.  His  kingdom  did  not  long  survive  him. 
The  unruly  fishermen  came  one  day  with  ax  and  torch, 
leveled  the  royal  city  to  the  ground,  and  banished  the 
frightened  "saints." 

To-day  the  White  River  prairie  gives  no  evidence  of 
having  once  borne  the  city  of  Zion,  and  even  in  the 
Michigan  archipelago  there  remain  few  visible  relics  of 
the  marvelous  reign  of  King  Strang. 


THE   WISCONSIN    BOURBON 

years  after  Louis  the  XVI.,  Bourbon  king 
1  of  France,  and  his  beautiful  queen,  Marie  Antoi- 
nette, were  beheaded  by  the  revolutionists  in  Paris,  in 
the  closing  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century,  their 
imbecile  child  of  eight  years,  called  the  "  dauphin," 
was  officially  reported  to  have  died  in  prison.  But  the 
story  was  started  at  the  time,  and  popularly  believed, 
that  the  real  dauphin,  Louis  the  XVII.,  had  been 
stolen  by  the  royalists,  and  another  child  cunningly 
substituted  to  die  there  in  his  place.  The  story  went 
that  the  dauphin  had  been  sent  to  America,  and  that 
all  traces  of  him  were  lost ;  thus  was  given  to  any  ad- 
venturer of  the  requisite  age,  and  sufficiently  obscure 
birth,  an  opportunity  to  seek  such  honor  as  might  be 
gained  in  claiming  identity  with  the  escaped  prisoner. 

Great  was  the  excitement  in  the  United  States,  when, 
in  1853,  it  was  confidently  announced  by  a  New  York 
magazine  writer  that  the  long  lost  prince  had  at  last 
been  discovered,  in  the  person  of  the  middle-aged  Elea- 
zer  Williams,  an  Episcopal  missionary  to  the  Oneida 
Indians  at  •Little  Kaukauna,  in  the  lower  valley  of  the 
Fox. 

The  Bonaparte  family,  represented  by  Louis  Napo- 
leon, were  just  then  in  control  of  France ;  but  the  Bour- 
196 


197 

bon  family,  of  which  Louis  the  XVII.,  were  he 
alive,  would  naturally  be  the  head,  considered  them- 
selves rightful  hereditary  masters  of  that  country.  Of 
course,  there  was  at  the  time  no  opportunity  for  any 
Bourbon  actually  to  occupy  the  French  throne ;  but  the 
people  of  that  country  are  highly  emotional,  revolutions 
have  been  numerous  among  them,  and  displaced  royal- 
ists are  always  hoping  for  some  turn  in  affairs  which 
may  enable  them  once  more  to  gain  the  government. 
It  was  this  possible  chance  of  the  Bourbons  getting  into 
power  once  more,  that  added  interest  to  the  story. 

Let  us  see  what  sort  of  person  this  Eleazer  Williams 
of  Wisconsin  was,  and  how  it  came  about  that  he  made 
the  assertion  that  he  was  the  head  of  the  Bourbons,  and 
an  uncrowned  king.  It  had  heretofore  been  supposed 
by  every  one  who  knew  him  that  he  was  the  son  of 
Mohawk  -Indian  parents,  both  of  whom  had  white  blood 
in  their  veins,  living  just  over  the  New  York  border,  in 
Canada.  Certain  Congregationalists  had  induced  this 
couple  to  allow  two  of  their  sons,  Thomas  and  Eleazer, 
to  be  educated  in  New  England  as  missionaries  to  the 
Indians ;  and  for  several  years  they  attended  academies 
there,  becoming  fairly  proficient  in  English,  although 
their  aboriginal  manners  were  not  much  improved. 

At  last  returning  to  his  Canadian  home,  Eleazer  neg- 
lected his  Congregational  benefactors,  and  soon  became 
interested  in  the  Episcopal  Church.  He  would  have 
become  one  of  its  missionaries  at  once,  but  just  at  that 
time  the  War  of  1812-15  broke  out;  and  instead  he 
became  a  spy  in  the  pay  of  the  United  States,  convey- 
ing to  his  employers  important  information  concerning 


I98 

the  movements  of  British  troops  in  Canada.  When  the 
war  was  over,  having,  as  an  American  spy,  incurred  the 
dislike  of  the  Canadian  Mohawks,  he  was  sent  as  an 
Episcopal  missionary  to  the  Oneida  Indians,  then  living 
in  Oneida  county,  New  York. 

Williams  appears  to  have  differed  from  the  ordinary 
Indian  type,  although  he  was  thickset,  dark  haired, 
and  swarthy  of  skin.  Some  took  him  to  be  a  Spaniard  ; 
others  there  were  who  thought  him  French ;  and  com- 
ments which  he  had  heard,  concerning  his  slight  re- 
semblance to  the  pictures  of  the  Bourbons,  doubtless 
caused  Eleazer  in  later  years  to  pretend  to  be  the  lost 
dauphin.  He  was  a  fair  orator,  and  in  his  earlier  years 
succeeded  well  in  persuading  the  simple  red  men  about 
him.  His  plausible  manner,  and  this  ease  of  persuasion, 
finally  led  him  astray. 

The  Oneida  Indians  in  New  York  and  their  neigh- 
bors (formerly  from  New  England),  the  Munsees,  Stock- 
bridges,  and  Brothertowns,  were  just  then  being  crowded 
out  of  that  State.  A  great  company  had  acquired  the 
right  from  the  federal  government  to  purchase  the  lands 
held  by  these  Indians,  whenever  they  cared  to  dispose 
of  them.  In  order  to  hurry  matters,  the  company 
began  to  sow  among  the  poor  natives  the  seeds  of 
discontent. 

Certain  of  their  leaders,  among  them  Williams,  advo- 
cated emigration  to  the  West.  It  appears  that  Wil- 
liams, who  was  a  born  intriguer,  conceived  the  ambitious 
idea  of  taking  advantage  of  this  movement  to  establish 
an  Indian  empire  in  the  country  west  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan, with  himself  as  dictator. 


199 

Moved  by  the  clamor  of  the  red  men,  the  federal 
government  sent  a  delegation  to  Wisconsin,  in  1820,  to 
see  whether  the  tribes  west  of  the  lake  would  consent 
to  accept  the  New  York  Indians  as  neighbors.  This 
delegation  was  headed  by  Dr.  Jedediah  Morse,  a  cele- 
brated geographer  and  missionary.  Morse  visited 
Mackinac  and  Green  Bay,  and  returned  with  the  report 
that  the  valley  of  the  lower  Fox  was  the  most  suitable 
place  in  which  to  make  a  settlement.  That  very  sum- 
mer, Williams  himself,  with  several  other  headmen,  had 
on  their  own  account  journeyed  as  far  as  Detroit  on 
a  similar  errand,  but  returned  without  discovering  a 
location. 

The  owners  of  the  land  selected  by  Morse  were  the 
Menominees  and  Winnebagoes,  with  whom  Williams 
and  his  followers  held  a  council  at  Green  Bay,  the  fol- 
lowing year.  A  treaty  was  signed,  by  which  the  New 
York  Indians  were  granted  a  large  strip  of  land,  four 
miles  wide,  at  Little  Chute. 

The  ensuing  year  (1822),  at  a  new  council  held  at 
Green  Bay,  the  New  Yorkers  asked  for  still  more  land. 
The  Winnebagoes,  much  incensed,  withdrew  from  the 
treaty,  but  the  Menominees  were  won  over  by  Williams's 
eloquence,  and  granted  an  extraordinary  cession,  mak- 
ing the  New  York  Indians  joint  owners  with  themselves 
of  all  Menominee  territory,  which  then  embraced  very 
nearly  a  half  of  all  the  present  State  of  Wisconsin. 

Ten  years  of  quarreling  followed,  for  there  was  at 
once  a  reaction  from  this  remarkable  spirit  of  gener- 
osity. In  1832  there  was  concluded  a  final  treaty,  ap- 
parently satisfactory  to  most  of  those  concerned,  and 


200 


soon  thereafter  a  large  number  of  New  York  Indians 
removed  hither.  The  Oneidas  and  Munsees  established 
themselves  upon  Duck  Creek,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Fox,  and  the  Stockbridges  and  Brothertowns  east  of 
Lake  Winnebago.  As  for  Williams,  the  jealousies  and 
bickerings  among  his  people  soon  caused  him  to  lose 
control  over  them,  thus  giving  the  deathblow  to  his 
wild  dreams  of  empire. 

During  the  next  twenty  years,  in  which  he  continued 
to  serve  as  a  missionary  to  the  Wisconsin  Oneidas, 
Williams  was  a  well-known 
and  picturesque  charac- 
ter. His  home  was 
^  on  the  west  bank 
•  of  the  river,  about  a 
mile  below  Little  Kau- 
kauna.  Although  a  man 
of  much  vigor  and  strength  of  mind,  he  soon  came  to 
be  recognized  as  an  unscrupulous  fellow  by  the  ma- 
jority of  both  whites  and  reds  in  the  lower  Fox,  and 
his  clerical  brethren,  East  as  well  as  West,  appear  to 
have  regarded  him  with  more  or  less  contempt. 

Baffled  in  several  fields  of  notoriety  which  he  had 
worked,  Williams  suddenly  posed  before  the  American 
public,  in  1853,  as  the  hereditary  sovereign  of  France. 
He  was  too  young  by  eight  years  to  be  the  lost  dau- 
phin ;  that  he  was  clearly  of  Indian  origin  was  proved 
by  a  close  examination  of  his  color,  form,  and  feature ; 
his  dusky  parents  protested  under  oath  that  the  way- 
ward Eleazer  was  their  son  ;  every  allegation  of  his  in 
regard  to  the  matter  has  often  been  exposed  as  false; 


201 

and  all  his  neighbors  who  knew  him  treated  his  claims 
as  fraudulent. 

Nevertheless,  he  succeeded  in  deceiving  a  number  of 
good  people,  including  several  leading  clergymen  of  his 
church ;  one  of  the  latter  attempted  in  an  elaborate 
book,  "The  Lost  Prince,"  to  prove  conclusively  that 
Williams  was  indeed  the  son  of  the  executed  monarch. 

The  pretensions  of  Eleazer  Williams,  who  dearly 
loved  the  notoriety  which  this  discussion  awakened, 
extended  through  several  years.  They  even  won  some 
little  attention  in  France,  but  far  less  than  here,  for 
several  other  men  had  claimed  to  be  the  lost  dauphin,  so 
that  the  pretension  was  not  a  new  one  over  there.  Louis 
Philippe,  the  head  of  the  Bourbon-Orleans  family  in 
France,  sent  him  a  present  of  some  finely  bound  books, 
believing  him  the  innocent  victim  of  a  delusion ;  but, 
further  than  that,  and  a  chance  meeting  at  Green  Bay, 
between  Eleazer  Williams  and  another  French  royal- 
ist, the  Prince  de  Joinville,  then  on  his  travels  through 
America,  the  family  in  France  paid  no  attention  to  the 
adventurous  half-breed  American  Indian  who  claimed 
to  be  one  of  them. 

•  The  reputation  of  Williams  as  a  missionary  had  at 
last  fallen  so  low,  and  the  neglect  of  his  duties  was  so 
persistent,  that  his  salary  was  withdrawn  by  the  Epis- 
copal Church,  and  his  closing  years  were  spent  in 
poverty.  He  died  in  1858,  maintaining  his  absurd 
claims  to  the  last. 


SLAVE   CATCHING   IN   WISCONSIN 

THERE  had  been  a  few  negro  slaves  in  Wisconsin 
before  the  organization  of  the  Territory  and  dur- 
ing Territorial  days.  They  had  for  the  most  part 
been  brought  in  by  lead  miners  from  Kentucky  and 
Missouri.  But,  as  the  population  increased,  it  was 
seen  that  public  opinion  here,  as  in  most  of  the  free 
States,  was  strongly  opposed  to  the  practice  of  hold- 
ing human  beings  as  chattels.  Gradually  the  dozen 
or  more  slaves  were  returned  to  the  South,  or  died 
in  service,  or  were  freed  by  their  masters ;  so  that,  at 
an  early  day,  the  slavery  question  had  ceased  to  be 
of  local  importance  here. 

As  the  years  passed  on,  and  the  people  of  the 
North  became  more  and  more  opposed  to  the  slave 
system  of  the  South,  the  latter  lost  an  increasing 
number  of  its  slaves  through  escape  to  Canada.  They 
were  assisted  in  their  flight  by  Northern  sympa- 
thizers, who,  secretly  receiving  them  on  the  north 
bank  of  the  Ohio  River,  passed  them  on  from  friend 
to  friend  until  they  reached  the  Canadian  border.  As 
this  system  of  escape  was  contrary  to  law,  it  had  to 
be  conducted,  by  both  white  rescuers  and  black  fugi- 
tives, with  great  privacy,  often  with  much  peril  to 
life ;  hence  it  received  the  significant,  popular  name 


203 

of  "  The  Underground  Railroad."  Wisconsin  had  but 
small  part  in  the  working  of  the  underground  rail- 
road, because  it  was  not  upon  the  usual  highway 
between  the  South  and  Canada.  But  our  people  took 
a  firm  stand  on  the  matter,  sympathizing  with  the 
fugitive  slaves  and  those  who  aided  them  on  their 
way  to  freedom. 

When,  therefore,  Congress,  in  1850,  at  the  bidding 
of  the  Southern  politicians,  passed  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  Wisconsin  bitterly  condemned  it.  This  act  was 
designed  to  crush  out  the  underground  railroad.  It 
provided  for  the  appointment,  by  federal  courts,  of 
commissioners  in  the  several  States,  whose  duty  it 
should  be  to  assist  slaveholders  and  their  agents  in 
catching  their  runaway  property.  The  unsupported 
testimony  of  the  owner  or  agent  was  sufficient  to 
prove  ownership,  the  black  man  himself  having  no 
right  to  testify,  and  there  being  for  him  no  trial  by 
jury.  The  United  States  commissioners  might  en- 
force the  law  by  the  aid  of  any  number  of  assistants, 
and,  in  the  last  resort,  might  summon  the  entire 
population  to  help  them.  There  were  very  heavy 
penalties  provided  for  violations  of  this  inhuman  law. 

The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  was  denounced  by  most  of 
the  political  conventions  held  in  our  State  that  year. 
In  his  message  to  the  legislature,  in  January,  1851, 
Governor  Dewey  expressed  the  general  sentiment  when 
he  said  that  it  "  contains  provisions  odious  to  our  peo- 
ple, contrary  to  our  sympathies,  and  repugnant  to  our 
feelings."  But  it  was  three  years  before  occasion 
arose  for  Wisconsin  to  act. 


204 


In  the  early  months  of  1854,  a  negro  named  Joshua 
Glover  appeared    in   Racine,  and    obtained   work   in  a 
sawmill  four  miles  north  of  that  place.     On  the  night 
of   the   loth    of    March,    he  was   playing  cards  in    his 
little  cabin,  with  two  other  men 
of  his  race.     Suddenly  there 
appeared  at  the  door  seven 
well-armed  white  men, 
—  two    United    States 
deputy  marshals  from 
Milwaukee,  their  four 
assistants  from  Ra- 
cine,   and    a     St. 
Louis  man  named 
Garland,     who 
claimed  to  be  Glov- 
er's owner. 

A  desperate 
struggle  followed, 
the  result  being  that 
Glover,  deserted  by 
his  comrades  and 
knocked  senseless  by 
a  blow,  was  placed  in 
chains  by  his  captors. 
Severely  bleeding  from  his  wounds,  he  was 
thrown  into  an  open  wagon  and  carted  across  country 
to  the  Milwaukee  county  jail,  for  the  man  hunters 
feared  to  go  to  Racine,  where  the  antislavery  feeling 
was  strong.  It  was  a  bitter  cold  night,  and  Glover's 
miseries  were  added  to  by  the  brutal  Garland,  who 


205 

at  intervals  kicked  and  beat  the  prisoner,  and  prom- 
ised him  still  more  serious  punishment  upon  their 
return  to  the  Missouri  plantation. 

The  news  of  the  capture  was  not  long  in  reaching 
Racine.  The  next  morning  there  was  held  in  the  city 
square  a  public  meeting,  attended  by  nearly  every 
citizen,  at  which  resolutions  were  passed  denouncing 
the  act  of  the  kidnapers  as  an  outrage ;  demanding 
for  Glover  a  trial  by  jury;  promising  "to  attend  in 
person  to  aid  him,  by  all  honorable  means,  to  secure 
his  unconditional  release  "  ;  and,  most  significant  of  all, 
resolving  that  the  people  of  Racine  "  do  hereby  de- 
clare the  slave  catching  law  of  1850  disgraceful  and 
also  repealed."  There  were  many  such  nullifying 
resolutions  passed  in  those  stirring  days  by  mass  meet- 
ings throughout  the  country,  but  this  was  one  of  the 
earliest  and  most  outspoken.  That  afternoon,  on  hear- 
ing where  Glover  had  been  imprisoned,  a  hundred 
indignant  citizens  of  Racine,  headed  by  the  sheriff, 
went  by  steamer  to  Milwaukee,  arriving  there  at  five 
o'clock. 

Meanwhile,  Milwaukee  had  been  active.  News  of 
the  capture  had  not  been  circulated  in  that  city  until 
eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning.  One  of  the  first  to 
learn  of  it  was  Sherman  M.  Booth,  the  energetic  editor 
of  a"  small  antislavery  paper,  the  Wisconsin  Free  Demo- 
crat. Riding  up  and  down  the  streets  upon  a  horse, 
he  scattered  handbills,  and,  stopping  at  each  crossing, 
shouted  :  "  Freemen,  to  the  rescue  !  Slave  catchers  are 
in  our  midst !  Be  at  the  courthouse  at  two  o'clock  !  " 

Prompt  to  the  hour,  over  five  thousand  people  assem- 


206 

bled  in  the  courthouse  square,  where  Booth  and  several 
other  "  liberty  men "  made  impassioned  speeches.  A 
vigilance  committee  was  appointed,  to  see  that  Glover 
had  a  fair  trial,  and  the  county  judge  issued  in  his 
behalf  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  calling  for  an  immediate 
trial,  and  a  show  of  proofs.  But  the  federal  judge, 
A.  G.  Miller,  forbade  the  sheriff  to  obey  this  writ,  hold- 
ing that  Glover  must  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  United 
States  marshal,  in  whose  custody  he  was  placed  by  vir- 
tue of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law. 

The  local  militia  were  called  out  to  suppress  the  dis- 
order, but  they  were  without  power.  It  soon  became 
noised  about  that  Glover  was  to  be  secretly  removed  to 
Missouri.  This  made  the  mob  furious.  Just  at  this 
time  the  Racine  contingent  arrived,  adding  oil  to  the 
flames.  The  reenforced  crowd  now  marched  to  the  jail, 
attacked  the  weak  structure  with  axes,  beams,  and 
crowbars,  rescued  the  fugitive  just  at  sunset,  and 
hurried  him  off.  An  underground  railroad  agency  took 
the  poor  fellow  in  charge,  and  soon  placed  him  aboard 
a  sailing  vessel  bound  for  Canada,  where  he  finally 
arrived  in  safety. 

Throughout  Wisconsin  the  rescue  was  approved  by 
the  newspapers  and  public  gatherings.  Sympathetic 
meetings  were  also  held  in  other  States,  at  which  reso- 
lutions applauding  the  action  of  Booth  and  his  friends, 
and  declaring  the  slave  catching  law  unconstitutional, 
were  passed  with  much  enthusiasm.  There  was  also 
held  at  Milwaukee,  in  April,  a  notable  State  conven- 
tion, with  delegates  from  all  of  the  settled  parts  of  the 
commonwealth  ;  this  convention  declared  the  law  un- 


constitutional,  and  formed  a  State  league  for  furnish- 
ing aid  and  sympathy  to  the  Glover  rescuers. 

In  1857,  as  a  result  of  the  Glover  affair,  the  Wis- 
consin legislature  passed  an  act  making  it  a  duty  of 
district  attorneys  in  each  county  "to  use  all  lawful 
means  to  protect,  defend,  and  procure  to  be  discharged 
.  .  .  every  person  arrested  or  claimed  as  a  fugitive 
slave,"  and  throwing  around  the  poor  fellow  every 
possible  safeguard.  Such  was  Wisconsin's  final  pro- 
test against  the  iniquity  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law. 

Naturally,  Booth  had  been  looked  upon  by  the 
United  States  marshal  as  the  chief  abettor  of  the 
riot.  He  was  promptly  arrested  for  violating  a  federal 
law  by  aiding  in  the  escape  of  a  slave  ;  but  the  State 
supreme  court  promptly  discharged  him  on  a  writ  of 
habeas  corpus.  Thereupon  he  was  brought  before  the 
federal  court,  but  again  the  State  court  interfered  in 
his  favor,  because  of  a  technical  irregularity. 

On  the  first  of  these  occasions,  the  State  court  issued 
a  very  remarkable  decision  upon  State  rights,  that  at- 
tracted national  attention  at  a  time  when  this  question 
was  violently  agitating  the  public  mind.  It  declared, 
after  a  clear,  logical  statement  of  the  case,  that  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  was  "  unconstitutional  and  void " 
because  it  conferred  judicial  power  upon  mere  court 
commissioners,  and  deprived  the  accused  negro  of  the 
right  of  trial  by  jury.  One  of  the  justices  of  the 
court,  in  an  individual  opinion,  went  still  further :  he 
held  that  Congress  had  no  power  to  legislate  upon  this 
subject ;  that  "  the  States  will  never  quietly  submit  to 
be  disrobed  of  their  sovereignty"  by  "national  func- 


208 

tionaries "  ;  that  the  police  power  rested  in  the  State 
itself,  which  would  not  "  succumb,  paralyzed  and  aghast, 
before  the  process  of  an  officer  unknown  to  the  consti- 
tution, and  irresponsible  to  its  sanctions  " ;  and  that  so 
long  as  he  remained  a  judge,  Wisconsin  would  meet 
such  attempts  with  "  stern  remonstrance  and  resistance." 

The  federal  court  reversed  this  action,  and  again 
arrested  Booth  in  1860,  but  he  was  soon  pardoned  by 
the  President,  and  met  with  no  further  trouble  on 
account  of  the  Glover  affair. 

As  for  the  people  of  Racine,  they  made  life  rather 
uncomfortable  for  the  men  who  had  assisted  the  Mil- 
waukee deputy  marshals  in  arresting  Glover.  The  city 
became  a  fiercer  hotbed  of  abolition  than  ever  before, 
and  several  times  thereafter  aided  slaves  to  escape  from 
bondage.  Fortunately  for  their  own  good,  as  well  as 
for  the  cause  of  law  and  order,  they  found  no  further 
occasion  to  take  the  law  into  their  own  hands,  in  the 
defense  of  human  liberty. 


THE    STORY    OF    A    FAMOUS    CHIEF 

ONE  of  the  best-known  Indians  with  whom  Wiscon- 
sin Territorial  pioneers  were  thrown  into  personal 
contact  was  Oshkosh,  the  last  of  the  Menominee 
sachems,  or  peace  chiefs.  It  is  worth  while  briefly 
to  relate  the  story  of  his  career,  because  it  was  the 
life  of  a  typical  Indian  leader,  at  the  critical  time 
when  the  whites  were  coming  into  the  country  in  such 
numbers  as  to  crowd  the  reds  to  the  wall. 

Oshkosh  was  born  in  1795,  at  Point  Bas,  on  the  Wis- 
consin River.  Cha-kau-cho-ka-ma  (meaning  Old  King), 
the  peace  chief  of  the  Menominees  at  that  time,  was 
his  maternal  grandfather.  The  war  chief  was  Glode, 
the  orator  of  the  tribe,  and  a  mighty  hunter.  The 
Old  King  lived  until  1826,  but  Glode  died  in  1804, 
his  successor  being  Tomah  (the  French  pronunciation 
of  Thomas,  his  English  name). 

In  the  War  of  1812-15,  a  large  band  of  Wisconsin 
Indians  joined  the  ranks  of  Tecumseh,  in  raiding  upon 
the  American  borderers.  The  principal  Menominee 
chiefs  were  Tomah,  Souligny,  Grizzly  Bear,  and  lome- 
tah,  and  among  the  young  men  was  Oshkosh. 

Their  first  expedition  was  against  Fort  Mackinac,  in 
1812,  that  stronghold  being  captured  from  the  Ameri- 

STO.    OF   BADGER   SI  A. —  14         209 


2IO 

cans  without  bloodshed.  Among  white  men,  such  an 
enterprise  would  not  seem  to  offer  much  opportunity 
for  the  display  of  personal  bravery ;  but  savage  and 
civilized  standards  of  courage  differ,  and  young  Osh- 
kosh  appears  to  have  satisfied  the  old  men  upon  this 
occasion,  so  that  he  then  received  the  name  by  which 
we  know  him,  meaning  in  the  Menominee  tongue, 
"brave." 

By  the  following  May,  Oshkosh,  now  in  his  nine- 
teenth year,  and  prominent  among  the  young  warriors, 
went  out  with  Souligny  and  Tomah,  and  joined  Tecum- 
seh  in  the  siege  of  Fort  Meigs  at  the  rapids  of  the 
Maumee  River.  Later,  during  the  same  summer,  he 
was  engaged  in  the  memorable  British-Indian  siege  of 
Sandusky.  The  succeeding  year  he  was  one  of  a  large 
party  of  Menominees  assisting  the  British  to  repel  a 
fierce  but  futile  American  attempt  to  recapture  Fort 
Mackinac.  This  was  his  last  campaign,  for  peace 
between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  soon  fol- 
lowed. 

Oshkosh,  now  living  upon  the  lands  of  the  tribe  in 
northeastern  Wisconsin,  appears  to  have  passed  a  quiet 
existence,  after  his  exploits  of  1812-15.  Lacking  the 
stimulus  of  war,  he  maintained  a  state  of  artificial 
excitement  by  the  use  of  fire  water,  and  soon  won  a  bad 
reputation  in  this  regard.  But  he  was  not  wholly  de- 
based. Few  in  council  had  more  power  than  he. 
Although  he  was  slow  to  speak,  his  opinion  when 
given  had  much  weight,  because  of  a  firm,  resolute 
tone,  beside  which  the  impassioned  flights  of  Tomah 
and  Souligny  often  failed  in  effect. 


211 


When  the  Old  King  died  without  any  sons,  a  contest 
arose  over  the   successorship   to    the   chieftaincy.       In 
many  tribes  there  would  have  been  no  question  about 
the  election  of  Oshkosh,  for  he  was  the  son 
of  Old  King's  daughter ;  but  the  Menom-       ^   ^ 
inees     did     not     recognize 
any       heirship       except 
through  sons.     So  many 
claimants     arose,     each 
determined  to  fight  for 
the  position,    that   the 
United  States  govern- 
ment feared  an    out- 
break   of    civil    war 
within  the  tribe,  with 
possible     injuries     to 
the  neighboring  white 
settlers. 

Hence  a  court  of 
claims  was  organ- 
ized, to  choose  a  chief 
among  the  contest- 
ants. This  court, 
headed  by  Governor 
Lewis  Cass,  of  Michi- 
gan Territory,  met  at 
Little  Butte  des  Morts  (near  Neenah)  in  August,  1827, 
and  selected  Oshkosh.  Cass,  in  the  presence  of  the 
tribesmen,  hung  a  medal  about  the  neck  of  the  victor, 
shook  hands  with  him,  and  ordered  a  feast  in  honor  of 
the  event. 


212 


The  first  five  years  of  the  reign  of  this  dusky  chief- 
tain were  peaceful  enough,  so  far  as  relations  with  other 
tribes  were  concerned.  But  within  the  Menominee  vil- 
lages there  were  frequent  drunken  frolics,  which  some- 
times ended  in  bloodshed  or  in  endless  disputes  between 
families ;  and  in  these  disturbances,  which  often  greatly 
alarmed  the  white  settlers,  Oshkosh  had  his  full 
share. 

When  in  June,  1832,  the  great  Sac  leader,  Black 
Hawk,  was  harassing  the  settlements  in  northern  Illi- 
nois and  southern  Wisconsin,  while  being  slowly  driven 
northward  by  the  white  troops,  fears  were  entertained 
in  the  valley  of  the  lower  Fox  that  he  would  turn 
toward  Green  Bay.  With  the  hope  of  preventing  this, 
a  force  of  three  hundred  Menominee  Indians  was 
recruited  there,  and  sent  to  the  seat  of  war,  officered 
by  American  and  French  residents.  Oshkosh  headed 
his  people,  but  arrived  too  late  to  do  any  fighting ; 
Black  Hawk  had  already  been  vanquished  by  white 
soldiers,  at  the  battle  of  the  Bad  Ax.  Oshkosh  and  his 
braves  found  no  more  savage  foe  than  a  small  party  of 
Sacs,  old  men  and  women  and  children,  flying  from  the 
battlefield,  and  these  they  promptly  massacred,  proudly 
carrying  the  scalps  back  with  them  to  Green  Bay. 

Four  years  later,  the  Menominees  sold  all  of  their 
lands  in  Wisconsin  to  the  federal  government,  and 
were  placed  upon  the  reservation  at  Keshena,  where 
they  still  live. 

In  1840,  the  little  four-year-old  white  settlement  at 
the  junction  of  the  upper  Fox  with  Lake  Winnebago 
thought  itself  large  enough  to  have  a  post  office,  hence 


213 

the  necessity  for  adopting  a  permanent  name.  The 
place  had  at  first  been  known  to  travelers  as  Stanley's 
Tavern,  because  here  a  man  named  Stanley  ran  a  ferry 
across  Fox  River,  and  kept  a  log  hotel.  Then  the 
Green  Bay  merchants  fell  into  the  habit  of  marking 
"Athens"  on  boxes  and  bales  which  the  boatmen  car- 
ried up  to  Stanley's. 

When  the  question  arose  over  the  name  for  the 
post  office,  there  were  several  candidates,  "  Osceola," 
"  Galeopolis,"  and  "Athens"  being' prominent.  Rob- 
ert Grignon,  a  French  fur  trader  at  Grand  Butte  des 
Morts,  desiring  to  be  on  good  terms  with  his  Menomi- 
nee  neighbors,  proposed  "Oshkosh."  Thereupon  party 
spirit  ran  high.  Upon  a  day  named,  a  popular  elec- 
tion without  distinction  of  race  was  held  at  the  office  of 
the  justice  of  the  peace,  who  provided  a  free  dinner  to 
the  voters ;  among  them  were  a  score  of  Indians, 
brought  in  by  Grignon.  Several  ballots  were  taken, 
between  which  speeches  were  made  in  behalf  of  the 
rivals.  "  Oshkosh "  finally  won,  chiefly  by  the  votes 
of  Grignon's  Indians.  Harmony  was  soon  restored, 
and  the  election  ended  in  drink  and  smoke,  after  the 
fashion  of  border  gatherings  in  those  days. 

We  hear  little  more  of  old  chief  Oshkosh,  until  fifteen 
years  later.  In  the  year  1852  occurred  a  kidnaping 
case,  which  became  famous  in  the  frontier  annals  of 
Wisconsin.  Nahkom,  a  Menominee  squaw,  was  accused 
of  having  stolen  a  little  white  boy,  the  son  of  Alvin  Par- 
tridge, of  the  town  of  Neenah,  in  Winnebago  county. 
The  Indians  stoutly  denied  the  truth  of  this  accusation ; 
indeed,  Partridge  himself  failed  to  recognize  his  lost  son 


2I4 

in  the  person  of  Nahkom's  boy.  But  the  relatives  and 
neighbors  of  Partridge  were  confident  as  to  the  identity, 
and  the  bereaved  father  was  induced  to  ask  aid  of  the 
courts  in  obtaining  the  child. 

The  case  hung  fire  for  three  years,  the  courts  always 
deciding  in  favor  of  Nahkom,  although  Partridge  re- 
gained temporary  possession  of  the  boy  under  writs  of 
habeas  corpus.  Finally,  pending  the  decision  of  a  Mil- 
waukee judge  upon  the  application  for  a  writ,  the  little 
fellow  was  placed  in  the  jail  of  that  city.  From  there 
the  Partridges  kidnaped  him  and  fled  to  Kansas,  leaving 
poor  Nahkom  childless,  for  undoubtedly  it  was  a  case  of 
mistaken  identity,  and  the  child  was  really  hers.  Ulti- 
mately the  boy  was  found  and  restored  to  her. 

This  was  in  1855.  Oshkosh  and  a  number  of  Me- 
nominee  headmen  went  at  once  to  Milwaukee,  upon 
learning  of  the  jail  delivery,  and  laid  their  complaints 
before  the  judge.  Recognizing  the  press  as  a  medium 
of  communication  with  the  public,  Oshkosh  and  Sou- 
ligny  also  visited  the  editor  of  the  Sentinel,  asking  him 
to  state  their  grievance  and  plead  their  cause.  The 
speech  which  Oshkosh  made  to  the  editor  was  given  in 
full  in  that  paper,  and  is  a  good  specimen  of  the  direct, 
earnest  method  in  Indian  oratory. 

He  said,  among  other  things  :  "  Governor  Dodge  told 
us  that  our  great  father  [the  President]  was  very  strong, 
and  owned  all  the  country ;  and  that  no  one  would  dare 
to  trouble  us,  or  do  us  wrong,  as  he  would  protect  us. 
He  told  us,  too,  that  whenever  we  got  into  difficulty  or 
anything  happened  we  did  not  like,  to  call  on  our  great 
father  and  he  would  see  justice  done.  And  now  we 


215 

come  to  you  to  remind  our  great  father,  through  your 
paper,  of  his  promise,  and  to  ask  him  to  fulfil  it.  ... 
We  thought  our  child  safe  in  the  jail  in  the  care  of  the 
officers ;  that  none  could  get  the  child  away  from  them 
unless  the  law  gave  them  the  right.  We  cannot  but 
think  it  must  have  been  an  evil  spirit  that  got  into  the 
jail  and  took  away  our  child.  We  thought  the  white 
man's  law  strong,  and  are  sorry  to  find  it  so  weak." 
Upon  the  conclusion  of  his  visit,  Oshkosh  and  his 
friends  returned  to  their  reservation,  determined  never 
again  to  mingle  with  the  deceitful  and  grasping  whites. 
Upon  their  way  home  to  Keshena,  Oshkosh  stopped 
at  the  thriving  little  city  which  had  been  christened 
for  him,  and  expressed  pride  at  having  so  large  a  name- 
sake. It  was  his  first  and  only  visit.  Three  years  later 
he  died  in  a  drunken  brawl,  aged  sixty -three  years.  He 
was  a  good  Indian,  as  savages  go,  his  chief  vice  being 
one  borrowed  from  the  whites,  who  forced  themselves 
upon  his  lands  and  contaminated  him  and  his  people. 


A   FIGHT  FOR  THE  GOVERNORSHIP 

BETWEEN  the  time  when  Wisconsin  became  a 
state  (1848),  and  the  opening  of  the  War  of 
Secession  (1861),  party  feeling  ran  high  within  the 
new  commonwealth.  Charges  of  corruption  against 
public  officials  were  freely  made ;  many  men  sought 
office  for  the  plunder  supposed  to  be  obtained  by 
those  "inside  the  ring";  newspaper  editors  appeared 
to  be  chiefly  engaged  in  savage  attacks  on  the  repu- 
tations of  those  who  differed  from  them,  and  general 
political  demoralization  was  prevalent.  When,  how- 
ever, important  issues  arose  out  of  the  discussions  of 
the  strained  relations  between  North  and  South,  a 
higher  and  more  patriotic  tone  was  at  once  evident, 
and  this  has  ever  since  been  maintained  in  Wisconsin 
politics. 

The  most  striking  event  of  the  years  of  petty  par- 
tisan strife  which  preceded  the  war,  was  the  fight  for 
the  governorship  of  the  State,  between  William  A. 
Barstow  and  Coles  Bashford. 

Barstow,  a  Democrat  from  Waukesha  county,  had 
been  secretary  of  state  during  Governor  Dewey's  sec- 
ond term  (1850-51).  Owing  to  bitterness  occasioned 
by  the  rejection  of  the  first  State  constitution,  the 
216 


COLES  BASHFORD 


Democratic  party  in  Wisconsin  was  torn  into  factions, 
at  the  head  of  one  of  which  was  Barstow.  While  serv- 
ing as  secretary  of  state,  he  made 
many  enemies,  who  freely  accused 
him  of  rank  official  dishonesty,  and 
associated  him  with  the  corrupt 
methods  of  the  early  railway  com- 
panies which  were  just  then  seek- 
ing charters  from  the  legislature. 
Nevertheless,  like  all  strong,  positive 
men,  he  had  won  for  himself  warm 
friends,  who  secured  his  election  as 
governor  for  the  year  1854-55. 

His  enemies,  however,  grew  in  number,  and  their 
accusations  increased  in  bitterness.  His  party  renomi- 
nated  him  for  governor ;  but  he  had  lost  ground  during 
the  term,  and  could  not  draw  out  his  full  party  strength 
in  the  November  election  of  1855.  Besides,  the  new 
Republican  party,  although  as 
yet  in  the  minority,  was  making 
rapid  strides,  and  voted  solidly 
for  its  nominee,  Bashford,  a  Win- 
nebago  county  lawyer.  As  a 
result,  the  voting  for  governor 
proved  so  close  that  for  a  full 
month  no  one  knew  the  outcome. 
Meanwhile  there  was,  of  course, 
much  popular  excitement,  with 
charges  of  fraud  on  both  sides. 

Finally,  in  December,  the  State  board  of  canvassers 
met    at    Madison.      It   consisted    of   the    secretary   of 


WILLIAM    A.    BARSTOW 


218 

state,  the  State  treasurer,  and  the  attorney-general,  all 
of  them  Barstow  men.  Their  report  was  that  he  had 
received  one  hundred  fifty-seven  more  votes  than  his 
opponent.  The  Republicans  at  once  advanced  the 
serious^  charge  that  the  canvassers  had  deliberately 
forged  supplemental  returns  from  several  counties,  pre- 
tending to  receive  them  upon  the  day  before  the  count. 
Large  numbers  of  people  soon  came  to  believe  that 
fraud  had  been  committed,  and  Bashford  prepared  for 
a  contest. 

Upon  the  day  in  early  January  when  Barstow  was 
inaugurated  at  the  capitol,  with  the  usual  military  dis- 
play, Bashford  stepped  into  the  supreme  court  room 
and  was  quietly  sworn  in  by  the  chief  justice.  There- 
upon Bashford  appealed  to  the  court  to  turn  Barstow 
out,  and  declare  him  the  rightful  governor. 

There  followed  a  most  remarkable  lawsuit.  The 
constitution  provides  that  the  State  government  shall 
consist  of  three  branches,  legislative,  judicial,  and 
executive.  It  was  claimed  that  never  before  in  the  his- 
tory of  any  of  the  States  in  the  Union  had  one  branch 
of  the  government  been  called  upon  to  decide  between 
rival  claimants  to  a  position  in  another  branch.  Bar- 
stow's  lawyers,  of  course,  denied  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
court  to  pass  upon  the  right  of  the  governor  to  hold 
his  seat ;  for,  they  argued,  if  this  were  possible,  then 
the  judiciary  would  be  superior  to  the  people,  and 
no  one  could  hold  office  to  whom  the  judges  were  not 
friendly.  There  was  a  fierce  struggle,  for  several 
weeks,  between  the  opposing  lawyers,  who  were  among 
the  most  learned  men  of  the  State,  with  the  result 


219 

that  the  court  decided  that  it  had  jurisdiction  ;  and,  on 
nearly  every  point  raised,  ruled  in  favor  of  the  Bash- 
ford  men. 

Before  the  decision  of  the  case,  Barstow  and  his 
lawyers  withdrew,  declaring  that  the  judges  were  in- 
fluenced against  them  by  political  prejudices.  How- 
ever, the  court  proceeded  without  them,  and  declared 
that  the  election  returns  had  been  tampered  with,  and 
that  Bashford  really  had  one  thousand  nine  majority. 
He  was  accordingly  declared  to  have  been  elected 
governor. 

This  conclusion  had  been  expected  by  Barstow,  who, 
determined  not  to  be  put  out  of  office,  resigned  his 
position  three  days  before  the  court  rendered  its  deci- 
sion. Immediately  upon  Barstow's  resignation,  his 
friend,  the  lieutenant  governor,  Arthur  McArthur,  took 
possession  of  the  office.  He  claimed  that  he  was  now 
the  rightful  governor,  for  the  constitution  provides  that 
in  the  event  of  the  resignation,  death,  or  inability  of 
the  governor,  the  lieutenant  governor  shall  succeed 
him.  But  the  supreme  court  at  once  ruled  that,  as 
Barstow's  title  was  worthless,  McArthur  could  not  suc- 
ceed to  it,  a  logical  view  of  the  case  which  the  Bar- 
stow  sympathizers  had  not  foreseen. 

It  was  upon  Monday,  March  the  24th,  that  the  court 
rendered  its  decision.  Bashford  announced  that  he 
would  take  possession  of  the  office  upon  Tuesday. 
There  had  been  great  popular  uneasiness  in  Madison 
and  the  neighboring  country,  throughout  the  long  strug- 
gle, and  the  decision  brought  this  excitement  to  a  crisis. 
Many  of  the  adherents  of  both  contestants  armed  them- 


220 

selves  and  drilled,  in  anticipation  of  an  encounter  which 
might  lead  to  civil  war  within  the  State.  There  were 
frequent  wordy  quarrels  upon  the  streets,  and  threats 
of  violence ;  and  many  supposed  that  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  prevent  the  opposing  factions  from  fighting 
in  good  earnest. 

Affairs  were  in  this  critical  condition  upon  the  fateful 
Tuesday.  Early  in  the  day  people  began  to  arrive  in 
Madison  from  the  surrounding  country,  as  if  for  a  popu- 
lar fete.  The  streets  and  the  capitol  grounds  were  filled 
with  excited  men,  chiefly  adherents  of  Bashford ;  they 
cheered  him  loudly  as  he  emerged  from  the  supreme 
court  room,  at  eleven  o'clock,  accompanied  by  the 
sheriff  of  the  county,  who  held  in  his  hand  the  order 
which  awarded  the  office  to  Bashford. 

Passing  through  the  corridors  of  the  capitol,  now 
crowded  with  his  friends,  Bashford  and  the  sheriff 
rapped  upon  the  door  of  the  governor's  office.  Mc- 
Arthur  and  several  of  his  friends  were  inside ;  a  voice 
bade  the  callers  enter.  The  new  governor  was  a  large, 
pleasant-looking  man.  Leisurely  taking  off  his  coat 
and  hat,  he  hung  them  in  the  wardrobe,  and  calmly 
informed  McArthur  that  he  had  come  to  occupy  the 
governor's  chair. 

"Is  force  to  be  used  in  supporting  the  order  of  the 
court?"  indignantly  asked  the  incumbent,  as,  glancing 
through  the  open  door,  he  caught  sight  of  the  eager, 
excited  crowd  of  Bashford's  friends,  whose  leaders  with 
difficulty  restrained  them  from  at  once  crowding  into 
the  room. 

"  I    presume,"    blandly    replied    Bashford,    "  that   no 


221 

force  will  be  essential ;  but  in  case  any  is  needed, 
there  will  be  no  hesitation  whatever  in  applying  it, 
with  the  sheriff's  help." 

McArthur  at  once  calmed  down,  said  that  he  "  con- 
sidered this  threat  as  constructive  force,"  and  promptly 
left  his  rival  in  possession.  As  he  hurried  out,  through 
rows  of  his  political  enemies,  the  corridors  were  ringing 
with  shouts  of  triumph ;  and  in  a  few  moments  Bash- 
ford  was  shaking  hands  with  the  crowd,  who,  in  the 
highest  glee,  swarmed  through  his  office. 

The  legislature  was  divided  in  political  sentiment. 
The  senate  received  the  new  governor's  message  with 
enthusiasm,  and  by  formal  resolution  congratulated  him 
upon  his  success.  The  assembly  at  first  refused,  thirty- 
eight  to  thirty-four,  to  have  anything  to  do  with  him  ; 
but  upon  thirty  of  the  Democrats  withdrawing,  after 
filing  a  protest  against  the  action  of  the  court,  the 
house  agreed,  thirty-seven  to  nine,  to  recognize  Gov- 
ernor Bashford.  Thereafter  he  had  no  trouble  at  the 
helm  of  State. 


OUR   FOREIGN-BORN    CITIZENS 

IT  is  probable  that  no  other  State  in  the  Union  contains 
so  many  varieties  of  Europeans  as  does  Wisconsin. 
About  seventeen  per  cent  of  our  entire  population  were 
born  in  Germany ;  next  in  numbers  come  the  Scandina- 
vians, natives  of  Great  Britain,  Irish,  Canadians,  Poles, 
Bohemians,  Hollanders,  Russians,  and  French. 

These  different  nationalities  are  scattered  all  over  the 
State  ;  often  they  are  found  grouped  in  very  large  neigh- 
borhoods. Sometimes  one  of  these  groups  is  so  large 
that,  with  the  American-born  children,  it  occupies  entire 
townships,  and  practically  controls  the  local  churches 
and  schools,  which  are  generally  conducted  in  the  for- 
eign tongue.  There  are  extensive  German,  Scandina- 
vian, and  Welsh  farming  districts  in  our  State  where 
one  may  travel  far  without  hearing  English  spoken  by 
any  one.  Some  crowded  quarters  of  Milwaukee  are 
wholly  German  in  custom  and  language ;  and  there  are 
other  streets  in  that  city  where  few  but  Poles,  Bohemi- 
ans, or  Russians  can  be  found. 

Although  these  foreign-born  people,  as  is  quite  natu- 
ral, generally  cling  with  tenacity  to  the  language,  the 
religion,  and  many  of  the  customs  in  which  they  were 
reared,  it  is  noticeable  that  all  of  them  are  eager  to  learn 


223 

our  methods  of  government,  and  to  become  good  citi- 
zens ;  and  their  children,  when  allowed  to  mingle  freely 
with  the  youth  of  this  country,  become  so  thoroughly 
Americanized  that  little  if  any  difference  can  be  distin- 
guished between  them  and  those  whose  forefathers  have 
lived  here  for  several  generations  past. 

There  is,  however,  hardly  a  family  in  Wisconsin  which 
is  not  of  European  origin.  Some  of  us  are  descended 
from  ancestors  who  chanced  to  come  to  the  New  World 
at  an  earlier  period  than  did  the  ancestors  of  others  of 
our  fellow-citizens ;  that  is  all  that  distinguishes  these 
"  old  American  families "  from  those  more  recently 
transplanted. 

It  is  a  very  interesting  study  to  watch  the  gradual 
evolution  of  a  new  American  race  from  the  mingling 
on  our  soil  of  so  many  different  nationalities,  just  as 
the  English  race  itself  was  slowly  built  up  from  the  old 
Britons,  Saxons,  Norsemen,  and  Norman  French.  But 
we  must  remember  that  this  "  race  amalgamation," 
although  now  proceeding  upon  a  larger  scale  than 
was  probably  ever  witnessed  before,  has  always  been 
going  on  in  America  since  the  earliest  colonial  days, 
when  English,  French,  Hollanders,  Swedes,  Scotch,  and 
Irish  were  fused  as  in  a  melting  pot,  for  the  production 
of  the  American  types  that  we  meet  to-day. 

A  variety  of  reasons  induced  foreigners  to  come  to 
Wisconsin  in  such  large  numbers ;  they  may,  however, 
be  classified  under  three  heads,  political,  economic,  and 
religious.  The  political  reason  was  dissatisfaction  with 
the  government  at  home,  chiefly  because  it  repressed 
all  aspiration  for  liberty  and  forced  young  men  to  sac- 


224 

rifice  several  of  the  best  years  of  their  lives  by  spending 
them  in  the  army.  The  most  powerful  economic  reason 
was  inability  to  earn  a  satisfactory  living  in  the  father- 
land, because  worn-out  soils,  low  prices  for  produce, 
overcrowding  of  population,  and  excessive  competition 
among  workmen  resulted  in  starvation  wages.  The  re- 
ligious reason  was  the  disposition  of  European  mon- 
archs  to  interfere  with  men's  right  to  worship  God  as 
they  pleased. 

In  1830  there  were  serious  political  troubles  in  Ger- 
many, and  thousands  of  dissatisfied  people  emigrated 
from  that  country  to  America.  Many  of  the  newcomers 
were  young  professional  men  of  fine  education  and  lofty 
ideals.  In  those  early  days  American  society  was  some- 
what crude,  especially  upon  the  frontier.  These  spirited 
young  Germans  complained  that,  both  in  religion  and 
politics,  the  life  of  our  people  was  sordid  and  low,  with 
little  appreciation  for  the  higher  things  of  life ;  and  es- 
pecially did  they  resent  our  popular  lack  of  appreciation 
of  their  countrymen. 

Therefore,  in  1835,  there  was  formed  in  New  York  a 
society  called  "Germania,"  which  was  to  induce  enough 
Germans  to  settle  in  some  one  of  the  American  States 
to  be  able  to  gain  control  of  it  and  make  it  a  German 
State,  with  German  life  and  manners,  with  German 
schools,  literature,  and  art,  with  German  courts  and 
assemblies,  and  with  German  as  the  official  language. 
A  great  deal  of  discussion  followed,  as  to  which  State 
should  be  chosen ;  some  preferred  Texas,  others  Oregon, 
but  most  of  the  members  wished  some  State  in  what 
was  then  called  the  Northwest,  between  the  Great  Lakes 


225 

and  the  Mississippi  River.  The  society  disbanded  with- 
out result ;  but  the  agitation  to  which  it  gave  rise  was  con- 
tinued throughout  many  years  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean. 

Wisconsin  was  strongly  favored  by  most  of  the  Ger- 
man writers  on  immigration,  especially  about  the  time 
that  it  became  prominent  through  being  admitted  to 
the  Union  (1848).  Nothing  came  of  all  this  agitation 
for  a  German  State,  except  the  very  wide  advertising 
which  Wisconsin  obtained  in  Germany,  as  a  State  ad- 
mirably suited  for  Germans,  in  soil,  climate,  liberal  con- 
stitution, and  low  prices  for  lands,  and  as  possessing 
social  attractions  for  them,  because  it  had  early  obtained 
an  unusually  large  German  population. 

The  counties  near  Milwaukee  were  the  first  to  receive 
German  settlers.  This  movement  began  about  1839, 
and  was  very  rapid.  Soon  after  that,  Sauk  and  Dane 
counties  became  the  favorites  for  new  arrivals.  Next, 
immigrants  from  Germany  went  to  the  southwestern 
counties,  about  Mineral  Point,  and  northward  into  the 
region  about  Lake  Winnebago  and  the  Fox  River.  By 
1841  they  had  spread  into  Buffalo  county,  and  along 
the  Mississippi  River;  but  since  1860  they  have  chiefly 
gone  into  the  north  central  regions  of  the  State,  gen- 
erally preferring  forest  lands  to  prairies.  The  first 
arrivals  were  mainly  from  the  valley  of  the  Rhine ; 
next  in  order,  came  people  from  southern  Germany ; 
but  the  bulk  of  the  settlers  are  from  the  northern  and 
middle  provinces  of  their  native  land. 

The  principal  Swiss  groups  in  Wisconsin  are  in  Green, 
Buffalo,  Sauk,  Fond  du  Lac,  and  Taylor  counties.  That 
at  New  Glarus,  in  Green  county,  is  one  of  the  most 

STO.    UK    BADGER    STA.  —  15 


226 

interesting.  In  the  sterile  little  mountainous  canton 
of  Glarus,  in  Switzerland,  there  was,  about  1844,  much 
distress  because  of  over  population ;  the  tillable  land 
was  insufficient  to  raise  food  for  all  the  people.  It 
was,  therefore,  resolved  by  them  to  send  some  of  their 
number  to  America,  as  a  colony. 

Two  scouts  were  first  dispatched,  in  the  spring  of 
1845,  with  instructions  to  find  a  climate,  a  soil,  and 
general  characteristics  as  nearly  like  Switzerland  as 
possible.  These  agents  had  many  adventures  as  they 
wandered  through  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  before 
finally  selecting  Green  county,  Wisconsin,  as  the  place 
best  suited  for  their  people. 

It  was  supposed  that  those  left  behind  would  wait 
until  a  report  could  be  sent  back  to  them.  But  one 
hundred  ninety-three  of  the  intending  emigrants  soon 
became  restless,  and  started  for  America  only  a  month 
later  than  the  advance  guard.  The  party  had  a  long 
and  very  disagreeable  journey,  down  the  Rhine  River 
to  the  seaport,  where  after  many  sore  trials  they 
obtained  a  vessel  to  take  them  across  the  Atlantic. 
This  ship  was  intended  for  the  accommodation  of  only 
one  hundred  forty  passengers ;  but  nearly  two  hundred 
crowded  into  it,  and  had  a  tempestuous  and  generally 
disheartening  passage  of  forty-nine  days,  with  insuffi- 
cient food. 

At  last,  reaching  Baltimore,  they  proceeded  by  canal 
boat  to  the  foot  of  the  Alleghanies,  crossed  the  moun- 
tains by  a  crude  railway,  and  then  embarked  in  a 
steamer  down  the  Ohio  River,  bound  for  St.  Louis. 
After  their  arrival  at  that  city,  there  ensued  a  long  and 


227 

vexatious  search  for  the  scouts,  who,  not  expecting  them, 
had  left  few  traces  behind.  But  perseverance  finally  won, 
and  by  the  middle  of  August  all  of  these  weary  colo- 
nists were  reunited  in  the  promised  land  of  NewGlarus, 
five  thousand  miles  away  from  their  native  valleys. 

The  experience  of  the  first  few  years  was  filled  with 
privations,  because  these  poor  Swiss,  fresh  from  narrow 
fields  and  small  shops  at  home,  did  not  comprehend  the 
larger  American  methods  of  farming,  with  horse  and 
plow.  But,  by  the  kindness  of  their  American  neigh- 
bors, they  finally  learned  their  rude  lessons  ;  and,  soon 
adopting  the  profitable  business  of  manufacturing  Swiss 
cheese,  by  thrift  and  industry  they  in  time  succeeded 
in  making  of  New  Glarus  one  of  the  most  prosperous 
agricultural  regions  in  Wisconsin. 

It  is  estimated  that  in  Green  county  there  are  now 
eight  thousand  persons  of  Swiss  birth,  or  the  descend- 
ants of  Swiss,  about  one-third  of  the  entire  popula- 
tion. The  language  which  they  still  use  in  business 
affairs  is  the  German-Swiss  dialect. 

The  first  Norwegian  immigrants  to  America  arrived 
in   1825,  after  some  strange  adventures  on 
the  ocean,  and   settled  in   the 
State    of    New    York;    this 
was   before  Wisconsin  was 
ready    for   settlers.       From 
1836  to  1845,  thousands   of 
Norwegians  came  to  Illinois 
and  Wisconsin,    their   first    settle- 

K1RST   NORWEGIAN   CHURCH 

ment  in  Wisconsin  being  made  in 

1844,  in  the  town  of  Albion,  Dane  county.     They  are 


228 

now  scattered  quite  generally  over  the  State,  in  large 
groups,  with  hundreds  of  ministers  and  churches,  and 
many  newspapers ;  but  they  are  still  strongest  in  Dane 
county,  where,  probably,  there  are  not  less  than  four- 
teen thousand  who  were  either  born  in  Norway  or  are 
the  children  of  Norwegian-born  parents. 

The  Belgians  are  closely  massed  in  certain  towns  of 
Door,  Kewaunee,  and  Brown  counties,  in  the  north- 
eastern portion  of  the  State.  The  beginning  of  their 
immigration  was  in  1853,  when  ten  families  of  the 
province  of  Brabant,  in  Belgium,  determined  to  move 
to  America,  where  they  could  win  a  better  support 
for  themselves,  and  suitably  educate  their  children. 
The  vessel  in  which  they  crossed  the  Atlantic  was 
forty-eight  days  in  sailing  from  Antwerp  to  New 
York,  the  passage  being  tedious  and  rough,  accom- 
panied by  several  terrific  hurricanes.  The  poor  pilgrims 
suffered  from  hunger  and  thirst,  as  well  as  sickness, 
and  lost  one  of  their  number  by  death. 

It  was  while  on  board  ship  that  the  majority  decided 
to  settle  in  Wisconsin,  and  upon  landing,  hither  they 
promptly  came.  Arriving  in  Milwaukee,  they  knew 
not  what  part  of  the  State  was  best  suited  for  them  ; 
but  began  to  prospect  for  land,  and  finally  settled 
near  Green  Bay,  simply  because  a  large  portion  of 
the  population  of  that  village  could  speak  French, 
which  was  their  own  language.  At  first  they  had  de- 
termined to  locate  near  Sheboygan,  but  were  annoyed 
at  not  being  able  to  make  themselves  understood  by  the 
inhabitants  of  that  place.  The  little  band  of  Belgians 
was  at  last  established  within  rude  log  huts,  in  the. 


229 

heart  of  a  dense  forest,  ten  miles  from  any  other  human 
habitation,  without  roads  or  bridges,  or  even  horses  or 
cattle.  They  experienced  the  worst  possible  inconven- 
iences and  hardships  naturally  appertaining  to  life  in 
the  frontier  woods,  and  for  the  first  year  or  two  the 
colony  seemed  in  a  desperate  condition.  Its  hopeful 
members,  however,  hiding  their  present  misery,  sent 
cheerful  letters  home,  and  enticed  their  old  neighbors 
either  to  join  them,  or  to  form  new  settlements  in  the 
neighborhood.  In  due  time,  the  Belgians  of  northeastern 
Wisconsin  became  prosperous  farmers  and  merchants. 

Similar  tales  might  be  related,  of  the  great  difficulties 
and  hardships  bravely  overcome  by  several  other  for- 
eign groups  in  Wisconsin  :  for  instance,  the  Poles, 
the  Dutch,  the  Welsh,  the  Bohemians,  the  Cornish- 
men  of  the  lead-mine  region,  and  the  Icelandic  fishermen 
of  lonely  Washington  Island.  But  the  foregoing  will 
suffice  to  show  of  what  sturdy  stuff  our  foreign-born 
peoples  are  made,  and  cause  us  to  rejoice  that  such 
material  has  gone  into  the  upbuilding  of  our  common- 
wealth. 


SWEPT   BY   FIRE 

BEFORE  the  great  inrush  of  agricultural  settlers,  in 
1836,  most  of  the  surface  of  Wisconsin  was  cov- 
ered with  dense  forests.  In  the  northern  portion  of 
the  State,  pines,  hemlocks,  and  spruce  predominated, 
mingled  with  large  areas  of  hard  wood ;  elsewhere, 
hard  wood  chiefly  prevailed,  the  forests  in  the  south- 
ern and  eastern  portions  being  frequently  broken  by 
large  prairies  and  by  small  treeless  "openings." 

In  the  great  northern  pine  woods,  lumbermen  have 
been  busy  for  many  years.  They  leave  in  their  wake 
great  wastes  of  land,  some  of  it  covered  with  dead 
branches  from  the  trees  that  have'  been  felled  and 
trimmed  ;  some  so  sterile  that  the  sun,  now  allowed  to 
enter,  in  a  rainless  summer  bakes  the  earth  and  dries 
the  spongy  swamps  ;  while  all  about  are  great  masses 
of  dead  stumps,  blasted  trunks,  and  other  forest  debris. 
Settlers  soon  pour  in,  purchase  the  best  of  this  cut-over 
land,  and  clear  the  ground  for  farms.  But  there  are 
still  left  in  Wisconsin  great  stretches  of  deforested 
country,  as  yet  unsettled  ;  some  of  these  areas  are 
worthless  except  for  growing  new  forests,  an  enterprise 
which,  some  day,  the  State  government  will  undertake 
for  the  benefit  of  the  commonwealth. 
230 


231 


Now  and  then,  in  dry  seasons,  great  fires  start  upon 
these  "pine  barrens,"  or  "slashings,"  as  they  are  called, 
and  spread  until  often  they  cause  great  loss  to  life  and 
property.  These  conflagrations  originate  in  many  ways, 
chiefly  from  the  carelessness  of  hunters  or  Indians,  in 
their  camps,  or  from  sparks  from  locomotives,  or  bon- 
fires built  by  farmers  for  the  destruction  of  rubbish. 

Nearly  every  summer  and  autumn  these  forest  fires 
occur  more  or  less  frequently  in  northern  Wisconsin, 
working  much  damage  in  their  neighborhoods;  but 
usually  they  exhaust  themselves  when  they  reach  a 
swamp,  a  river,  or  cleared  fields.  When,  however, 
there  has  been  an  exceptionally  long  period  of  drought, 
everything  in  the  cut-over  lands  becomes  excessively 


232 

dry ;  the  light,  thin  soil,  filled  with  dead  roots  and 
encumbered  by  branches  and  stumps,  becomes  as  in- 
flammable as  tinder ;  the  dried-up  marshes  generate 
explosive  gases. 

The  roaring  flames,  once  started  in  such  a  season, 
are  fanned  by  the  winds  which  the  heat  generates,  and, 
gathering  strength,  roll  forward  with  resistless  impe- 
tus ;  dense,  resinous  forest  growths  succumb  before 
their  assault,  rivers  are  leaped  by  columns  of  fire,  and 
everything  goes  down  before  the  destroyer.  In  a  holo- 
caust of  this  character,  all  ordinary  means  of  fire  fight- 
ing are  in  vain ;  the  houses  and  barns  of  settlers  feed 
the  devouring  giant,  whole  towns  are  swept  away,  until 
at  last  the  flames  either  find  nothing  further  upon  which 
to  feed,  or  are  quenched  by  a  storm  of  rain. 

The  most  disastrous  forest  conflagration  which  Wis- 
consin has  known,  occurred  during  the  8th  and  Qth  of 
October,  1871.  There  had  been  a  winter  with  little 
snow,  and  a  long,  dry  summer.  Fires  had  been 
noticed  in  the  pine  forests  which  line  the  shores  of 
Green  Bay,  as  early  as  the  first  week  in  September. 
At  first  they  did  not  create  much  alarm ;  they  smoul- 
dered along  the  ground  through  the  vegetable  mold, 
underbrush,  and  "  slashings,"  occasionally  eating  out 
the  roots  of  a  great  tree,  which,  swayed  by  the  wind, 
would  topple  over  with  a  roar,  and  send  skyward  a 
shower  of  sparks. 

Gradually  the  "  fire  belt "  broadened,  and,  finding 
better  fuel,  the  flames  strengthened  ;  the  swamps 
began  to  burn,  to  a  depth  of  several  feet ;  over  hun- 
dreds of  square  miles  the  air  was  thick  and  stifling 


233 

with  smoke,  so  that  the  sun  at  noonday  appeared  like 
a  great  copper  ball  set  on  high ;  at  night  the  heavens 
were  lurid.  Miles  of  burning  woods  were  everywhere 
to  be  seen ;  hundreds  of  haystacks  in  the  meadows,  and 
great  piles  of  logs  and  railroad  ties  and  telegraph  poles 
were  destroyed. 

For  many  weeks  the  towns  along  the  bay  shore  were 
surrounded  by  cordons  of  threatening  flame.  The  peo- 
ple of  Pensaukee,  Oconto,  Little  Suamico,  Sturgeon 
Bay,  Peshtigo,  and  scores  of  other  settlements,  were 
frequently  called  out  by  the  .fire  bells  to  fight  the  in- 
sidious enemy ;  many  a  time  were  they  apparently 
doomed  to  destruction,  but  constant  vigilance  and 
these  occasional  skirmishes  for  a  time  saved  them. 

Reports  now  began  to  come  in,  thick  and  fast,  of 
settlers  driven  from  blazing  homes,  of  isolated  sawmills 
and  lumber  camps  destroyed,  of  bridges  consumed,  of 
thrilling  escapes  by  lumbermen  and  farmers.  On 
Sunday,  the  8th  of  October,  a  two  days'  carnival  of 
death  began.  In  Brown,  Kewaunee,  Oconto,  Door, 
Manitowoc,  and  Shawano  counties  the  flames,  suddenly 
rising,  swept  everything  within  their  path.  Where  thriv- 
ing, prosperous  villages  once  had  stood,  blackened  wastes 
appeared.  Over  a  thousand  lives  were  lost,  nearly  as 
many  persons  were  crippled,  and  three  thousand  were 
in  a  few  hours  reduced  to  beggary.  The  horrors  of  the 
scenes  at  New  Franken,  Peshtigo,  and  the  Sugar  Bush, 
in  particular,  were  such  as  cannot  be  described. 

This  appalling  tragedy  chanced  to  occur  at  the  same 
time  as  vast  prairie  fires  in  Minnesota,  and  the  terrible 
conflagration  which  destroyed  Chicago.  The  civilized 


234 

world  stood  aghast  at  the  broad  extent  of  the  field  of 
needed  relief ;  nevertheless,  the  frenzied  appeals  for 
aid,  issued  in  behalf  of  the  Wisconsin  fire  sufferers, 
met  with  as  generous  a  response  as  if  they  alone,  in 
that  fateful  month  of  October,  were  the  recipients  of 
the  nation's  bounty.  Train  loads  of  clothing  and 
provisions,  from  nearly  every  State  in  the  Union,  soon 
poured  into  Green  Bay,  which  was  the  center  of  distri- 
bution ;  the  United  States  government  made  large  gifts 
of  clothing  and  rations ;  nearly  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars  were  raised,  and  expended  under  official  control ; 
and  great  emergency  hospitals  were  opened  at  various 
points,  for  the  treatment  of  sick  and  wounded. 

As  for  the  actual  financial  loss  to  the  people  of  the 
burned  district,  that  could  never  be  estimated.  The 
soil  was,  in  many  places,  burned  to  the  depth  of  sev- 
eral feet,  nothing  being  left  but  sand  and  ashes ;  grass 
roots  were  destroyed;  bridges  and  culverts  were  gone; 
houses,  barns,  cattle,  tools,  seed,  and  crops  were  no 
more.  It  was  several  years  before  the  region  began 
again  to  exhibit  signs  of  prosperity. 

In  the  year  1894,  forest  fires  of  an  appalling  magni- 
tude once  more  visited  Wisconsin,  this  time  in  the 
northwestern  corner  of  the  State.  Again  had  there  been 
an  exceptionally  dry  winter,  spring,  and  summer.  The 
experience  gained  by  lumbermen  and  forest  settlers 
had  made  them  more  cautious  than  before,  and  more 
expert  in  the  fighting  of  fires  ;  but  that  year  was  one  in 
which  no  human  knowledge  seemed  to  avail  against  the 
progress  of  flames  once  started  on  their  career  of  dev- 
astation. 


235 

During  the  summer,  several  fires  had  burned  over 
large  areas.  By  the  last  week  of  July,  it  was  estimated 
that  five  million  dollars'  worth  of  standing  pine  had 
been  destroyed.  The  burned  and  burning  area  was 
now  over  fifty  miles  in  width,  the  northern  limit  being 
some  forty  miles  south  of  Superior.  Upon  the  2/th 
of  the  month,  the  prosperous  town  of  Phillips,  wholly 
surrounded  by  deforested  lands,  was  suddenly  licked 
up  by  the  creeping  flames,  the  terrified  inhabitants 
escaping  by  the  aid  of  a  railway  train.  Neighboring 
towns,  which  suffered  to  a  somewhat  less  degree,  were 
Mason,  Barronett,  and  Shell  Lake. 

In  1898  Wisconsin  was  again  a  heavy  sufferer  from 
the  same  cause.  The  fires  were  chiefly  in  Barren 
county,  upon  the  2Qth  and  3Oth  of  September.  Two 
hundred  fifty-eight  families  were  left  destitute,  and  the 
loss  to  land  and  property  was  estimated  at  $400,000. 
Relief  agencies  were  established  in  various  cities  of  the 
state,  and  our  people  responded  as  liberally  to  the 
urgent  call  for  help  as  they  had  in  1871  and  1894. 

A  more  competent  official  system  of  scientifically 
caring  for  our  forests,  restricting  the  present  wasteful 
cutting  of  timber,  and  preventing  and  fighting  forest 
fires,  would  be  of  incalculable  benefit  to  the  State  of 
Wisconsin.  The  annual  loss  by  burning  is  alone  a 
terrible  drain  upon  the  resources  of  the  people,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  death  and  untold  misery  which  stalk  in 
the  wake  of  a  forest  fire. 


BADGERS   IN    WAR  TIME 

THE  men  of  Wisconsin  who  had  fought  and  con- 
quered the  hard  conditions  of  frontier  life,  devel- 
oping a  raw  wilderness  into  a  wealthy  and  progressive 
commonwealth,  were  of  the  sort  to  make  the  best  of 
soldiers  when  called  upon  to  take  up  arms  in  behalf  of 
the  nation. 

From  the  earliest  days  of  the  War  of  Secession  until 
its  close,  Wisconsin  troops  were  ever  upon  the  firing 
line,  and  participated  in  some  of  the  noblest  victories 
of  the  long  and-painful  struggle.  General  Sherman,  in 
his  "  Memoirs,"  paid  them  this  rare  tribute  :  "  We  esti- 
mated a  Wisconsin  regiment  equal  to  an  ordinary  bri- 
gade." It  is  impracticable  in  one  brief  chapter  to  do 
more  than  mention  a  few  of  the  most  brilliant  achieve- 
ments of  the  Badger  troops. 

In  April,  1862,  the  Fourteenth,  Sixteenth,  and  Eigh- 
teenth Wisconsin  infantry  regiments,  although  new  in 
the  service,  won  imperishable  laurels  upon  the  bloody 
field  of  Shiloh.  The  men  of  the  Fourteenth  were  espe- 
cially prominent  in  the  fray.  Arriving  on  the  ground 
at  midnight  of  the  first  day,  they  passed  the  rest  of  the 
night  in  a  pelting  rain,  standing  ankle-deep  in  mud  ; 
and  throughout  all  the  next  day  fought  as  though  they 
were  hardened  veterans. 

236 


237 

A  Kentucky  regiment  was  ordered  to  charge  a  Con- 
federate battery,  but  fell  back  in  confusion ;  whereupon 
General  Grant  asked  if  the  Fourteenth  Wisconsin  could 
do  the  work.  Its  colonel  cried,  "We  .will  try!"  and 
then  followed  one  of  the  most  gallant  charges  of  the 
entire  war.  Thrice  driven  back,  the  Wisconsin  men 
finally  captured  the  battery ;  confusion  ensued  in  the 
Confederate  ranks,  and  very  soon  the  battle  of  Shiloh 
was  a  Union  victory. 

In  the  Peninsular  campaign  of  the  same  year,  the 
Fifth  Regiment  made  a  bayonet  charge  which  routed 
and  scattered  the  Confederates,  and  turned  the  scales 
in  favor  of  the  North.  In  an  address  to  the  regiment 
two  days  later,  General  McClellan  declared  :  "  Through 
you  we  won  the  day,  and  Williamsburg  shall  be  inscribed 
on  your  banner.  Your  country  owes  you  its  grateful 
thanks."  His  report  to  the  War  Department  describes 
this  charge  as  "  brilliant  in  the  extreme." 

Some  of  the  highest  honors  of  the  war  were  awarded 
to  the  gallant  Iron  Brigade,  composed  of  the  Second, 
Sixth,  and  Seventh  Wisconsin,  the  Nineteenth  Indiana, 
and  the  Twenty-fourth  Michigan.  At  Gainesville,  in 
the  Shenandoah  Valley  campaign,  also  in  1862,  this 
brigade  practically  won  the  fight,  the  brunt  of  the  Con- 
federate assault  being  met  by  the  Second  Wisconsin, 
which  that  day  lost  sixty  per  cent  of  its  rank  and  file ; 
the  brigade  itself  suffered  a  loss  of  nine  hundred  men. 

The  Third  opened  the  battle  at  Cedar  Mountain, 
and  very  soon  after  that  was  at  Antietam,  where  it 
lost  two-thirds  of  the  men  it  took  into  action.  The 
Fifth  also  was  prominent  near  by,  and  the  Iron  Brig- 


238 

ade,  behind  a  rail  fence,  conducted  a  fight  which  was 
one  of  the  chief  events  of  the  engagement. 

At  the  battle  of  Corinth,  several  Wisconsin  regiments 
and  four  of  her  batteries  won  some  of  the  brightest 
honors.  In  the  various  official  reports  of  the  action, 
such  comments  as  the  following  are  frequent:  "This 
regiment  (the  Fourteenth)  was  the  one  to  rely  upon  in 
every  emergency;"  a  fearless  dash  by  the  Seventeenth 
regiment,  one  general  described  as  "  the  most  glorious 
charge  of  the  campaign "  ;  there  was  an  allusion  to 
the  Eighteenth's  "  most  effectual  service " ;  in  refer- 
ring to  the  Sixth  battery,  mention  is  made  in  the  reports, 
of  "its  noble  work." 

At  Chaplin  Hills,  in  Kentucky,  a  few  days  later,  the 
First  Wisconsin  drove  back  the  enemy  several  times, 
and  captured  a  stand  of  Confederate  colors.  The  Tenth 
was  seven  hours  under  fire,  and  lost  fifty-four  per  cent 
of  its  number.  General  Rousseau  highly  praised  both 
regiments,  saying,  "  These  brave  men  are  entitled  to 
the  gratitude  of  the  country."  The  Fifteenth  captured 
heavy  stores  of  ammunition  and  many  prisoners;  the 
Twenty-fifth  repulsed,  with  withering  fire,  a  superior 
force  of  the  enemy,  who  had  suddenly  assaulted  them 
while  lying  in  a  cornfield ;  and  the  Fifth  battery  three 
times  turned  back  a  Confederate  charge,  "  saving  the 
division,"  as  General  McCook  reported,  "from  a  dis- 
graceful defeat." 

At  Prairie  Grove,  in  Arkansas,  at  Fredericksburg, 
and  at  Stone  River,  still  later  in  the  campaign  of  1862, 
Wisconsin  soldiers  exhibited  what  General  Sherman 
described  as  "  splendid  conduct,  bravery,  and  efficiency." 


239 

Men  of  Wisconsin  were  also  prominent  in  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  during  the  famous  "mud  campaign  "  of 
the  early  months  of  1863.  At  the  crossing  of  the  Rappa- 
hannock,  theirs  was  the  dangerous  duty  to  protect  the 
makers  of  the  pontoon  bridges.  In  the  course  of  this 
service,  the  Iron  Brigade  made  a  splendid  dash  across 
the  river,  charged  up  the  opposite  heights,  and  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet  routed  the  Confederates  who  were 
intrenched  in  rifle  pits. 

At  Chancellorsville,  the  Third  Wisconsin,  detailed  to 
act  as  a  barrier  to  the  advance  of  the  Confederates 
under  Stonewall  Jackson,  was  the  last  to  leave  the  ill- 
fated  field. 

At  Fredericksburg,  not  far  away,  the  Fifth  Wisconsin 
and  the  Sixth  Maine  led  a  desperate  charge  up  Marye's 
Hill,  where,  in  a  sunken  roadway,  lay  a  large  force  of 
the  enemy ;  this  force,  a  few  months  before,  had  killed 
six  thousand  Union  men  who  were  vainly  attempting  to 
rout  them.  This  second  and  final  charge  overcame  all 
difficulties,  and  succeeded.  As  the  Confederate  com- 
mander handed  to  the  colonel  of  the  Wisconsin  regi- 
ment his  sword  and  silver  spurs,  he  told  the  victor  that 
he  had  supposed  there  were  not  enough  troops  in  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  to  carry  the  position ;  it  was,  he 
declared,  the  most  daring  assault  he  had  ever  seen. 
Such,  too,  was  the  judgment  of  Greeley,  who  declared 
that  "  Braver  men  never  smiled  on  death  than  those 
who  climbed  Marye's  Hill  on  that  fatal  day."  The 
correspondent  of  the  London  Times  also  wrote,  "  Never 
at  Fontenoy,  Albuera,  nor  at  Waterloo  was  more 
undaunted  courage  displayed." 


240 

In  the  campaign  which  resulted  in  the  fall  of  Vicks- 
burg,  in  1863,  numerous  Wisconsin  regiments  partici- 
pated, many  of  them  with  conspicuous  gallantry.  It 
was  an  officer  of  the  Twenty-third  who  received,  at  the 
base  of  the  works,  the  offer  of  the  Confederates  to 
surrender. 

The  part  taken  by  Wisconsin  troops  at  Gettysburg, 
was  conspicuous.  The  Iron  Brigade  and  a  Wisconsin 
company  of  sharpshooters  were,  day  by  day,  in  the 
thickest  of  the  fight,  and  gained  a  splendid  record.  At 
Chickamauga,  several  of  our  regiments  fought  under 
General  Thomas,  and  lost  heavily.  They  afterward 
participated  in  the  struggle  at  Mission  Ridge,  which 
resulted  in  the  Confederate  army  under  Bragg  being 
turned  back  into  Central  Georgia. 

The  Iron  Brigade  was  in  Grant's  campaign  against 
Richmond,  serving  gallantly  in  the  battles  of  the  Wil- 
derness, in  the  "  bloody  angle  "  at  Spottsylvania,  at  Fair 
Oaks,  and  in  the  numerous  attacks  before  Petersburg. 

Wisconsin  contributed  heavily  to  the  army  of  Sher- 
man, in  his  "march  to  the  sea,"  and  in  the  preliminary 
contests  won  distinction  on  many  a  bitterly  contested 
field.  Several  of  our  regiments  were  in  the  assault  on 
Mobile,  the  day  when  Lee  was  surrendering  to  Grant, 
in  far-off  Virginia.  Others  of  the  Badger  troops,  in- 
fantry and  cavalry,  served  in  Louisiana,  Texas,  and 
Arkansas,  fighting  the  Confederate  guerillas,  while 
our  artillerymen  were  distributed  throughout  the  sev- 
eral Union  armies,  and  served  gallantly,  until  the  last 
days  of  the  war. 

Wisconsin   soldiers  languished  in  most  of  the  great 


241 

Southern  military  prisons.  A  thrilling  escape  of  Union 
men  from  Libby  Prison,  at  Richmond,  was  made  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1864,  by  means  of  a  secret  tunnel.  This  was 
ingeniously  excavated  under  the  superintendence  of  a 
party  of  which  Colonel  H.  C.  Hobart  of  the  Twenty- 
first  Wisconsin  was  a  leader. 

Another  notable  event  of  the  war,  of  which  a  Wis- 
consin man  was  the  hero,  occurred  during  the  night  of 


the  27th  of  October,  1864.  The  Confederate  armored 
ram  A/bemarle,  after  having  sunk  several  Union  vessels, 
was  anchored  off  Plymouth,  North  Carolina,  a  town 
which  was  being  attacked  by  Federal  troops  and  ships. 
Lieutenant  W.  B.  Gushing  of  Delafield,  Waukesha 
county,  proceeded  to  the  Albemarle  in  a  small  launch, 
under  cover  of  the  dark ;  and,  in  the  midst  of  a  sharp 
fire  from  the  crew  of  the  ram,  placed  a  torpedo  under 
her  bow  and  blew  her  up.  The  daring  young  officer 
STO.  OF  BALH;KR  STA. —  16 


242 

escaped  to  his  ship,  amid  appalling  difficulties,  having 
won  worldwide  renown  by  his  splendid  feat. 

The  saving  of  the  Union  fleet  in  the  Red  River  was 
an  incident  which  attracted  national  attention  to  still 
another  Wisconsin  man.  The  expedition  up  the  river, 
into  the  heart  of  the  enemy's  country,  was  a  failure,  and 
immediate  retreat  inevitable.  But  the  water  had  low- 
ered, and  the  fleet  of  gunboats  found  it  impossible  to 
descend  the  rapids  at  Alexandria.  The  enemy  were 
swarming  upon  the  banks,  and  the  situation  was  so 
hazardous  that  it  seemed  as  if  the  army  would  find  it 
necessary  to  desert  the  vessels.  Lieutenant  Colonel 
Joseph  Bailey  of  the  Fourth  Wisconsin  infantry,  serv- 
ing as  chief  engineer  on  General  Franklin's  staff,  pro- 
posed to  dam  the  river,  then  suddenly  make  an  opening, 
and  allow  the  boats  to  emerge  with  the  outrush  of  im- 
prisoned water.  The  plan  is  a  familiar  one  to  Wiscon- 
sin lumbermen,  in  getting  logs  over  shoals ;  but  it  was 
new  to  the  other  officers,  and  Bailey  was  laughed  at  as 
a  visionary.  However,  the  situation  was  so  desperate 
that  he  was  allowed  to  try  his  experiment.  It  succeeded 
admirably ;  the  fleet,  worth  nearly  two  millions  of  dol- 
lars, was  saved,  and  the  expedition  emerged  from  the 
trap  in  good  order.  Bailey  was  made  a  brigadier  gen- 
eral, and  the  grateful  naval  officers  presented  him  with 
a  valuable  sword  and  vase. 

No  account  of  Wisconsin's  part  in  the  War  of  Seces- 
sion should,  however  brief,  omit  reference  to  a  conspic- 
uous participant,  "Old  Abe,"  the  war  eagle  of  the 
Eighth  Regiment.  He  was  captured  by  an  Indian,  on  the 
Flambeau  River,  a  branch  of  the  Chippewa,  and  until 


243 

the  close  of  the  long  struggle  was  carried  on  a  perch  by 
his  owners,  the  men  of  Company  C.  He  was  an  eye- 
witness of  thirty-six  battles  and  skirmishes,  and  accom- 
panied his  regiment  upon  some  of  the  longest  marches 
of  the  war.  Frequently  he  was  hit  by  the  enemy's  bul- 
lets, but  never  was  daunted,  his  habit  in  times  of  action 
being  to  pose  upon  his  perch  or  a  cannon,  screaming 
lustily,  and  frequently  holding  in  his  bill  the  corner  of  a 
flag.  No  general  in  the  great  struggle  achieved  a  wider 
celebrity  than  "  Old  Abe."  Until  his  death,  in  1 88 1,  he 
was  exhibited  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  at  State  and 
national  soldiers'  reunions,  and  at  fairs  held  for  their 
benefit.  At  the  great  Sanitary  Fair  in  Chicago,  in  1865, 
it  is  said  that  the  sales  of  his  photographs  brought 
$16,000  to  the  soldiers'  relief  fund. 

Upon  the  opening  of  the  Spanish-American  War,  in 
April,  1898,  Wisconsin's  militia  system  was  one  of  the 
best  in  the  country,  and  its  quota  of  5390  volunteers 
was  made  up  from  these  companies. 

The  First  Regiment  was  sent  to  Camp  Cuba  Libre,  at 
Jacksonville,  Florida;  the  Second  and  Third  to  Camp 
Thomas,  at  Chickamauga;  and  the  Fourth,  at  first  to 
the  State  military  camp  at  Camp  Douglas,  and  later  to 
Camp  Shipp,  Alabama.  The  First  was  the  earliest 
raised,  and  the  best  equipped,  but  its  colonel's  commis- 
sion was  not  so  old  as  those  held  by  the  other  regimen- 
tal commanders  from  this  State;  therefore,  when  two 
Wisconsin  regiments  were  to  be  sent  in  July  to  Puerto 
Rico,  the  Second  and  Third  were  selected,  leaving  the 
First  reluctantly  to  spend  its  entire  time  in  camp.  After 
the  war,  it  had  been  intended  to  detail  the  Fourth, 


244 

not  mustered  in  until  late  in  the  struggle,  to  join  the 
American  army  of  occupation  in  the  West  Indies;  but, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  a  large  percentage  of  the  men 
were  suffering  from  camp  diseases,  they  were  finally 
mustered  out  without  leaving  the  country. 

The  Second  and  Third  had  an  interesting  experience 
in  Puerto  Rico.  Arriving  at  the  port  of  Guamico  upon 
the  25th  of  July,  they  took  a  prominent  part  in  the 
bloodless  capture  of  the  neighboring  city  of  Ponce. 
This  task  completed,  they  were  detailed,  with  the  Six- 
teenth Pennsylvania,  to  form  the  advance  guard  of  the 
army,  which  prepared  at  once  to  sweep  the  island  from 
south  to  north.  Our  men  were  almost  daily  under  fire, 
particularly  in  road  clearing  skirmishes  under  General 
Roy  Stone. 

Two  days  after  the  landing  at  Guamico,  Lieutenant 
Perry  Cochrane,  of  Eau  Claire,  an  officer  of  the  Third, 
was  sent  forward  with  seventeen  other  Eau  Claire  men, 
to  open  up  the  railway  line  leading  to  the  little  village 
of  Yauco,  lying  about  twenty  miles  westward  of  Ponce, 
and  to  capture  that  place.  The  track  and  the  bridges 
had  been  wrecked  by  the  fleeing  enemy,  so  that 
Cochrane's  party  endured  much  peril  and  fatigue  be- 
fore they  reached  their  destination  ;  and  Yauco  was  not 
disposed  to  succumb  to  this  handful  of  men.  Cochrane 
successfully  held  his  own,  however,  until  the  following 
day,  when  reinforcements  arrived. 

A  few  days  after  the  fall  of  Ponce,  the  Sheboygan 
company  was  acting  as  guard  to  a  detachment  repairing 
the  San  Juan  road,  several  miles  out  of  town.  Hearing 
that  a  party  of  Spanish  soldiers  had  taken  a  stand  at 


245 

Lares,  eighteen  miles  away,  a  detail  was  sent  with  a  flag 
of  truce,  to  treat  with  them.  The  squad  consisted  of 
Lieutenant  Bodemer,  four  privates,  and  a  bugler.  The 
Spaniards  were  not  in  a  pleasant  frame  of  mind,  and 
but  for  their  officers  would  have  made  short  shrift  of 
the  visitors,  despite  the  peaceful  flag  which  they  bore. 
Finally,  the  Spaniards  agreed  to  receive  a  deputation  of 
native  Puerto  Ricans,  and  talk  the  matter  over  with 
them.  Our  men  withdrew,  and  sent  natives  in  their 
stead ;  but  the  latter  were  treacherously  assaulted,  and 
only  one  of  them  escaped  to  tell  the  story. 

Upon  the  Qth  of  August,  there  was  a  sharp  fight  at 
Coamo.  Both  of  our  regiments  were  actively  employed 
in  this  encounter,  and  were  of  the  troops  which  finally 
raised  the  American  flag  over  the  town  walls. 

The  final  engagement  was  fought  two  days  later,  at 
the  mountain  pass  of  Asomanta,  near  Aibonito,  where 
2500  Spanish  troops  were  centered.  The  Second  Wis- 
consin was  the  last  American  regiment  in  this  fight,  and 
lost  two  killed  and  three  wounded.  These  were  Wis- 
consin's only  field  losses  during  the  war,  although  her 
deaths  from  camp  diseases  were  about  seventy. 


INDEX 


Albanel,  Father  Charles,  57. 

Albion,  227. 

Algonkin  tribes,  16,  24. 

Allouez,  Father  Claude,  45,  55-57,  H7,  H9- 

American  Fur  Company,  85,  86,  90. 

Andre,  Father  Louis,  57. 

Apostle  Islands,  40. 

Appleton,  36,  86. 

Ashland,  40,  146. 

Astor,  John  Jacob,  85. 

Atkinson,  General  Henry,  131,  I 39-141- 

Aztalan,  7,  8. 

Bad  Ax  River,  J3O,  142,  143,  212. 
Badger  State,  origin  of  term,  161. 
Bailey,  Colonel  Joseph,  242,  243. 
Baraga,  Father  Frederick,  153. 
Barren  County,  235. 
Barronett,  235. 

Barstow,  Colonel  William  A.,  216-221. 
Bash  ford,  Governor  Coles,  216-221. 
Bay  Held,  154. 

Beaubassin,  Hertel  de,  French  commandant,  150. 
Beaver  Island,  193,  194. 
Belgians  in  Wisconsin,  228,  229. 
Belleview,  158. 
Belmont,  157,  158. 
Berlin,  15,  37. 
Bill  Cross  Rapids,  55. 
Black  Hawk,  Sac  chief,  212. 
Black  Hawk  War,  86,  134-145. 
Black  River,  15,  53-55,  62. 
247 


248 

Bohemians  in  Wisconsin,  222,  229. 
Bois  Brule  River,  67,  71,  90,  148. 
Booth,  Sherman  M.,  205-208. 
Brisbois,  Michel,  113. 
Brothertown  Indians,  15,  198,  200. 
Brown  County,  228,  233. 
Buffalo  County,  225. 
Bulger,  Captain  Alfred,  116. 
Burlington,  190. 

Butte  des  Morts,  Grand,  91,  131,  213. 
Butte  des  Morts,  Little,  76,  211. 

Cadotte,  Jean  Baptiste,  152. 

Cadotte,  Michel,  152. 

Calve,  Joseph,  104. 

Cass,  Governor  Lewis,  211. 

Cassville,  158. 

Ceresco  Phalanx,  183-189. 

Cha-kau-cho-ka-ma  (Old  King),  209,  21 1. 

Champlain,  Samuel  de,  24,  25,  27,  28,  33,  51. 

Chardon,  Father  Jean  B.,  57. 

Chase,  Warren,  184. 

Chelsea,  55. 

Chequamegon  Bay,  40,  55,  56,  67,  84,  87,  88,  146-154. 

Chippewa  Indians,  14,  15,  18,  57,  78,  127,  149,  150,  152,  153. 

Chippewa  River,  40,  243. 

Clark,  General  George  Rogers,    9 7-. 04,  in. 

Clark,  General  William,  in. 

Cochrane,  Lieutenant  Perry,  244,  245. 

Copper  mines,  21. 

Copper  River,  55. 

Cornish  in  Wisconsin,  229. 

Crawford  County,  171. 

Gushing,  Lieutenant  W.  B.,  241,  242. 

Dakotan  tribes,  16. 

Dane  County,  225,  227,  228. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  140. 

Delafield,  242. 

De  Louvigny,  French  captain,  75,  76. 

De  Pere,  36,  45,  49,  50,  56-58,  86,  88. 

Dewey,  Governor  Nelson,  161,  203,  216. 


249 

Dickson,  Robert,  112,  113. 

Dodge,  Major  Henry,  142,  160,  214. 

Door  County,  35,  45,  228,  233. 

Doty,  Governor  James  D.,  157,  159,  166. 

Doty's  Island,  36. 

Dubuque,  Julien,  120,  121. 

Ducharme,  Jean  Marie,  104. 

Duck  Creek,  200. 

Duluth,  Daniel  Graysolun,  34,  66,  67,  147-149. 

Dutch  in  Wisconsin,  222,  229. 

Eau  Claire,  244. 

Eau  Claire  County,  90. 

Eau  Claire  River,  90. 

Eau  Pleine  River,  90. 

Embarrass  River,  90. 

English  in  Wisconsin,  92-98,  104-106,  HO-il6,  118. 

Enjalran,  Father  Jean,  57,  58. 

Equaysayway,  Chippewa  maid,  152. 

Flambeau  River,  243. 

Fond  du  I^c,  158,  182. 

Fond  du  Lac  County,  90,  184,  225. 

Fort  Crawford,  128,  133. 

Fort  Edward  Augustus,  93. 

Fort  Howard,  131,  133. 

Fort  McKay,  115,  116. 

Fort  Perrot,  63. 

Fort  St.  Antoine,  63.  .- 

Fort  St.  Francis,  93. 

Fort  St.  Nicholas,  63. 

Fort  Shelby,  112-116. 

Fort  Snelling,  128,  130-132. 

Fort  Winnebago,  133. 

Fox  Indians  (Outagamies),  15,  57,  64,  69,  71-80,  134. 

Fox  River,  14,  15,  30,  32,  36-38,  45,  56,  58-61,  64,  67,  68,  71,  72,  76,  79, 

in,  113,  114,  122-124,  131.  J33.  148,  180,  182,  199,  200,  212,  213,  225. 
French  in  Wisconsin,  15,  24-91,  97,  98,  104-110,  117-122,  127,  155,  222. 

See,  also,  Fur  Trade. 

Frontenac,  Governor  of  New  France,  28,  43,  44. 
Fur  Trade  in  Wisconsin,  22-25,  27,  28,  32-41,  43,  44,  49,  51,  53,  59-93, 

97,  98,  104,  105,  109-113,  117,  118,  120,  127,  146,  149,  152,  171. 


250 

Gagnier,  Registre,  129,  130. 
Galena,  Illinois,  63,  68,  122,  124,  172. 
Galena  River,  121. 
Gautier,  Charles,  100,  101,  103. 
Germans  in  Wisconsin,  222,  224,  225. 
Glode,  Indian  chief,  209. 
Glover,  Joshua,  204-208. 
Gorrell,  Lieutenant  James,  93-96,  105. 
Grand  Portage,  84. 

Green  Bay,  14,  15,  29,  30,  35,  36,  38,  45,  58,  61,  65,  68,  70,  77-79,  84, 
85,  88-91,93-96,98,  104-106,  112,  113,  123,  124,  131,  158,  166,  171, 

173,    178,   182,  187,   199,  212,  213,  228,  232,  234. 

Green  County,  225—227. 

Grignon,  Robert,  213. 

Grizzly  Bear,  Indian  chief,  209. 

Groseilliers,  Medard  Chouart  des,  34-41,  53,  55,  59,  60,  146. 

Hall,  Rev.  Sherman,  153. 

Harrison,  Governor  William  H.,  106. 

Helena,  124. 

Hennepin,  Father  Louis,  66,  67. 

Henry,  General  James  D.,  142. 

Hesse,  English  captain,  104. 

Hobart,  Colonel  H.  C.,  241. 

Hudson  Bay  Company,  41,  60,  84. 

Huron  Indians,  15,  28-30,  39-41,  53,  54,  74,  151. 

Icelanders  in  Wisconsin,  229. 

Illinois  Indians,  15,  32,  74-76. 

Indians,  as  mound  builders,  7-14,  19;  life  and  manners  of,  14-23;  pot- 
tery, 21;  copper  and  stone  implements,  21,  22.  See,  also,  the  several 
Tribes. 

lometah,  Indian  chief,  209. 

Iowa  County,  121. 

Irish  in  Wisconsin,  222. 

Iron  Brigade,  237-240. 

Iroquois  Indians,  24,  27,  38,  39,  45,  53,  63,  72. 

Janesville,  182. 

Jesuit  Missionaries  in  Wisconsin,  25,  26,  29,  31,  32,  35,  42-59,  62,  66,  87, 

88. 
Johnson,  Colonel  James,  121. 


251 

Johnson,  John,  152. 

Joliet,  Louis,  37,  38,  42-50,  60,  65,  118. 

Joseph,  fur-trade  clerk,  151. 

Kaukauna,  36,  86,  91. 
Kenosha,  184. 
Keokuk,  Sac  chief,  145. 
Keshena,  212,  215. 
Kewaunee  County,  228,  233. 
Kiala,  Fox  chief,  79. 
Kickapoo  Indians,  15,  16,  46,  74. 
Kickapoo  River,  15. 
Koshkonong,  158. 

La  Crosse,  86,  88,  91. 

La  Crosse  County,  90. 

Lafayette  County,  157. 

Lake  Chetek,  88. 

Lake  Court  Oreilles,  88,  90,  153. 

Lake  Flambeau,  88,  90,  153. 

Lake  Koshkonong,  46. 

Lake  Michigan,  15,  27,  29,  3^,  35,  49,  57,  60,  65-67,  69,  93,  94,  104,  123, 

157,  158,  162,  164,  171,  179,  182,  193,  198. 
Lake  Pepin,  62,  63,  78,  90. 
Lake  St.  Croix  (Upper),  67. 
Lake  Sandy,  88. 
Lake  Shawano,  56,  57. 
Lake  Superior,  27,  29,  38-41,  53-56,  59,  60,  65,  66,  71,  104,   146,  148, 

150,  151,  154. 

Lake  Vieux  Desert,  54,  55,  90,  167. 
Lake  Winnebago,  37,  112,  113,  181,  200,  212,  225. 
Langlade,  Charles  de,  100,  101,  103. 
Langlade  County,  90. 
La  Pointe,  $<:,  56,  147-15°.  ^52~1S^ 
La  Ronde,  fur  trader,  150. 
La  Salle,  Chevalier  de,  28,  34,  43,  64-66,  69. 
Lead  Mining  in  Wisconsin,  63,  68,  117-124. 
Le  Sueur,  Pierre,  67,  68,  119,  148,  149. 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  139. 
Linctot,  Godefroy,  103,  104. 
Lipcap,  killed  by  Indians,  129,  130. 
Little  Chute,  199. 


252 

Little  Kaukauna,  196,  200. 
Little  Suamico,  233. 
Long,  John,  105,  106. 

McArthur,  Lieutenant  Governor  Arthur,  219,  220. 

McKay,  Major  William,  113,  114. 

Mackinac,  29,  35,  44,  45,  56,  61,  67,  70,  78,  83,  84,  93,  94,  98,99,  104,  105, 

1 1 1-114,  J20,  147,  199,  209,  210. 
Madelaine  Island,  148-150. 

Madison,  123,  158,  160,  165,  172,  175,  182,  217,  220. 
Manitowoc  County,  233. 
Marin,  French  captain,  72,  73. 

Marquette,  Father  Jacques,  37,  38,42-50,  56,  60,  118,  147,  149,  153. 
Marquette  County,  90. 
Mascoutin  Indians  (Fire  Nation),  15,  37,  38,  45-47,  57,  60,  63,  64,  -4, 

78. 

Mason,  destroyed  by  fire,  235. 
Massachusetts  Indians  in  Wisconsin,  15. 
Menard,  Father  Rene,  52-55,  59,  146. 
Menasha,  36. 

Menominee  Indians,  15,46,  59,  74,  78,  94-96,  199,  209-214. 
Menominee  River,  30,  167,  168. 
Merrill,  55. 

Methode,  killed  by  Indians,  128,  133. 
Miami  Indians,  15,  46,  47,  60,  64. 
Miller,  A.  G.,  206. 
Milwaukee,  66,  69,  86,  88,  106,  122,  123,  158,  172,  179,  180,  182,  204,  2iJ, 

222,  225,  228. 

Mineral  Point,  122,  158,  225. 
Mississippi  River,  14,  32,  37,  42-50,  57,  62,  63,  65-70,  72,  73,  76-78,  87, 

93,  104,  in,  H2,  119,  120,  123,  124,  127,  128,  138,  139,  142,  143,  148, 

149,  156,  158,  162,  164,  168,  169,  179,  180,  182,  190,  225. 
Mohawk  Indians,  197,  198. 
Montreal  River,  167. 
Mormons  in  Wisconsin,  190-195. 
Morse,  Dr.  Jedediah,  199. 
Munsee  Indians,  15,  198,  200. 

Nahkom,  Indian  woman,  213,  214. 
Neapope,  Sac  leader,  139. 
Neenah,  36,  73,  76,  86,  211,  213. 
New  Franken,  233. 


253 

New  Glarus,  225,  227. 

New  York  Indians  in  Wisconsin,  15. 

Nicolet,  Jean,  26-33,  3^,  37.  43.  45>  59.  "7- 

Northwest  Company,  84. 

Nouvel,  Father  Henri,  57. 

Oconto,  233. 
Oconto  County,  233. 
Oclanah,  153. 

Ogemaunee,  Menominee  chief,  94-96. 
"  Old  Abe,"  Wisconsin  war  eagle,  243. 
Oneida  Indians,  15,  196,  198,  200. 
Oshkosh  (city),  37,  86,  213. 
Oshkosh,  Indian  chief,  209-215 
Ottawa  Indians,  15,  39,  53,  60,  74,  78. 

Partridge,  Alvin,  213,  214. 

Pensaukee,  233. 

Perkins,  Lieutenant  Joseph,  112,  114. 

Perrot,  Nicolas,  34,  57-64,  66,  72. 

Peshtigo,  233. 

Phillips,  235. 

Platteville,  158. 

Point  Bass,  209. 

Poles  in  Wisconsin,  222,  229. 

Pontiac's  War,  94,  97. 

Portage,  37,  47,  48,  86,  90,  91,  103,  106,   113,  122,  131,  133,  158,  178, 

1 80. 

Portage  County,  90. 
Potosi,  68. 

Pottawattomie  Indians,  15,  36,  59,  64,  74,  138,  141. 
Prairie  du  Chien,  14,  37,  48,  63,  70,  86,  88,  89,  91,  98,  103-105,  Iio-il6, 

123,  124,  127-133,  142,  144,  172,  178,  179. 
Prairie  du  Sac,  142. 

Racine,  91,  158. 

Racine  County,  90,  190. 

Radisson,  Pierre-Esprit,  34-41,  45,  53,  55,  59,  60,  146,  147,  149. 

Reaume,  Charles,  105-109. 

Red  Bird,  Winnebago  chief,  128-133. 

Roads  in  Wisconsin,  177-182. 

Rock  River,  123,  134,  138,  141,  145,  182. 


254 


Rolette,  Joseph,  113. 
Russians  in  Wisconsin,  222. 


Sac  Indians,  15,  73,  74,  78^80,  134-145,  212. 

St.  Cosme,  Father  Jean  Francois  Buisson,  68,  69. 

St.  Croix  County,  90. 

St.  Croix  River,  67,  68,  71,  90,  148,  169,  170. 

St.  Francis  Xavier  mission.     See  De  Pere. 

St.  James,  Jesuit  mission,  57. 

St.  Louis  River,  148. 

St.  Mark,  Jesuit  mission,  56,  57 

Sauk  County,  225. 

Sault  Ste.  Marie,  43,  60,  61,  63. 

Scandinavians  in  Wisconsin,  222,  227,  228. 

Scotch  in  Wisconsin,  222. 

Shawano  County,  233. 

Sheboygan,  69,  86,  228. 

Shell  Lake,  235. 

Shull,  James  W.,  121. 

Shullsburg,  121. 

Silvy,  Father  Antoine,  57. 

Sinclair,  Captain  Patrick,  104. 

Sioux  Indians,  14,  16,  18,  40,  56,  62,  66,  67,  78,  127-130,  144,  147. 

Slavery  in  Wisconsin,  202-208. 

Souligny,  Indian  chief,  209,  210,  214. 

Spaniards  in  lead  mines,  120,  121. 

Spanish-American  War,  Wisconsin  in,  243-245. 

Stockbridge  Indians,  15,  198,  200. 

Strang,  James  Jesse,  190-195. 

Sturgeon  Bay,  86,  233. 

Sturgeon  Bay  (water),  Indians  on,  14. 

Sugar  Bush,  233. 

Superior,  235. 

Swiss  in  Wisconsin,  225-227. 

Taylor,  Zachary,  139. 
Taylor  County,  225. 
Tecumseh,  135,  209,  210. 
Tomah,  209,  210. 
Trempealeau,  62,  63,  169. 
Trempealeau  County,  7,  90,  91 
Vanderventer's  Creek,  147. 


255 

Voree,  191-193,  195. 

Wabashaw,  Sioux  chief,  144. 

Walworth  County,  192. 

War  of  Secession,  Wisconsin  in,  236-245. 

Warren,  Lyman  Marcus,  152,  153. 

Warren,  Truman,  152,  153. 

Washington  Island,  229. 

Waukesha,  182. 

Waukesha  County,  216,  242. 

Wekau,  Winnebago  avenger,  129-133. 

Welsh  in  Wisconsin,  222,  229. 

Whistler,  Major  William,  131,  132. 

White  Cloud,  Sac  leader,  138,  139. 

White  Crane,  Chippewa  chief,  152. 

White  River,  192,  195. 

Whittlesey's  Creek,  146. 

Williams,  Eleazer,  196-201. 

Winnebago  County,  213. 

Winnebago  Indians,   14-16,  18,  30-32,  78,  125-133,  138,  139,  141,   142, 

144,  199;   as  mound  builders,  14. 
Winnebago  Rapids,  73. 
Wisconsin  City,  158. 
Wisconsin  River,  14,  15,  32,  37,  48,  55,  61,  63,  67,  68,  71,  78,  79,  113,  114, 

122-124,  133,  141,  142,  148,  167,  180. 
Wisconsinapolis,  158. 
Wolf  River,  15,  56. 

Yellow  Banks,  138. 


TYPOGRAPHY  BY  J.  S.  GUSHING  &  Co.,  NORWOOD,  MASS.,  U.S.A. 


000  026  380 


